Tang Goucal on the Global Value Chain

“Asia should take its traditional position as thought leader of the world” – Dr. Rajiv Kumar, Vice-Chairman, NITI Aayog

Supriti MalhotraLeave a comment

Asia and the Emerging International Trading System or perhaps Asia AS the Emerging International Trading System, with more than 1/3 of the world’s population and more than 50% stakeholders in the global value chain, our (Asia’s) positioning in a post-colonial narrative has seen the global flexing of muscles with the US-China trade war causing flurried dialogues of geo-economic influences. Dutch Ambassador to India, Nepal and Bhutan, Martin Van Den Berg avers that “nationalist trade interests have turned to protectionism” and “negotiations are no longer about trade concerns but power politics.” According to Valentina Romei and John Reed who examined purchasing power parity (PPP) adjusted GDP data from the International Monetary Fund (IMF), “Asian economies, as defined by the UN trade and development body UNCTAD, will be larger than the rest of the world combined in 2020.” While External Affairs Minister, Dr. S Jaishankar asserts, “Trade and other forms of economic growth are critical elements of creating more effective multipolarity”, Consul General of the People’s Republic of China, Tang Guocai suggests that “the spirit of global village comes before the global value chain.”

Even as the rising fear of Coronavirus has caused stock markets to dip and affected the free movement of persons, sovereign powers entangled in an increasingly interdependent financial network cannot ignore Asia’s presence as a growing skilled workforce and a mammoth market. For Pearl Group CFO, Sanjay Gandhi, the question is “how do you bring the continuation of business?” Dr. S Jaishankar suggests that, “Competing against those with structural advantages cannot be a casual decision justified by political correctness. There is interest in the world to create additional drivers of growth while ensuring a global strategic balance.”

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Held at the J.W. Marriot Hotel in Pune between 28th February to 1st March 2020, the three-day inaugural session organized by the Indian Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) and the Pune International Centre (PIC) considered the push-pull of the periphery towards the centre as represented by existing flaws in the international trading system and its multinational bureaucracy of the World Trade Organisation (WTO), the World Bank, and the United Nations. Former Asst. Secretary General and Deputy Executive Director of UN Women, Lakshmi Puri asserts it is imperative to “change the unequal exchange as represented by the centre-periphery model of trade” for an “equitable multilateral system”

 

Aaditya Thackeray
Aaditya Thackeray

 

Featuring speakers ranging from government officials from India, Maldives, and Sri Lanka; industry leaders, international dignitaries, and diplomatic experts, the geo-economic conference offered a mélange of perspectives. While the Indian central government was ably represented by Dr. Hardeep Singh Puri (NITI Aayog), Dr. R.S. Sharma (Chairman, TRAI), Dr. Bibek Debroy (Chairman, Prime Minister Economic Advisory Council); Prof. Samir Brahmachari, founder Director of CSIR- Institute of Genomics & Integrative Biology, provided the representative frontier of scientific innovation in India. Aaditya Thackeray, Minister for Tourism, Environment & Protocol, Govt. of Maharashtra, exemplified the next generation of politicians already at the helm of state affairs. International dignitaries included the Amb. Zhang Xiangchen (Chinese Ambassador to WTO) and ministers from Maldives (Uz. Fayyaz Usmail) and Sri Lanka (Shehan Semasinghe).

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As talks veered towards WTO reforms, Dr. Harsha Vardhana Singh, former Deputy Director-General at World Trade Organization, stated, “Given the fact that the US is unwilling to move ahead with the solutions suggested by the panel led by David Walker, plurilateral consensus is essential.” Even as the multi-faceted economic perspectives of developing countries (DCs) work towards gaining a strategic balance between nationalist trade interests and regional cooperation, technological innovations are breaking barriers to trade and sovereign borders. According to Dr. Kishore Mahbubani, Founding Dean of Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Relations and Singapore’s former permanent representative to the United Nations, “Balkans of Asia have succeeded due to the open regionalism approach such as ASEAN”. Dr. Mahbubani also suggested that the balancing factors in geopolitical dynamics will be cultural confidence, the historical legacy of Indians succeeding and very strong domestic government.

 

Prof. Samir Brahmachari
Prof. Samir Brahmachari

 

While the Indian polity has restored its electoral faith in the Narendra Modi government, former Lead Economist, World Bank, Dr. Jayanta Roy contended that “India has been a hesitant globalizer” and “comprehensive trade and logistics facilitation” is essential for the country’s growth as a leader in the global value chain. Dr. Shailesh Kumar, Chief Data Scientist, Reliance Jio, who wants to “democratize AI” suggested that “We need to Olafy or Uberify these (technological) solutions” and enhance “integration between producers of technology and the farmer or patient.”

 

Amb. Gautam Bambawale, Hon. Hardeep Singh Puri, Aaditya Thackeray, Bhavish Aggarwal with Dr. Vijay Kelkar and Dr. Raghunath Mashelkar of Pune International Centre
Amb. Gautam Bambawale, Hon. Hardeep Singh Puri, Aaditya Thackeray, Bhavish Aggarwal with Dr. Vijay Kelkar and Dr. Raghunath Mashelkar of Pune International Centre

As the world battles with the ramifications of Coronavirus and its implications on the global value chain, the Asia Economic Dialogue has just begun towards a multilateral system that considers geo-specific factors in trade negotiations including differential treatment for least developed countries, fair international arbitration processes and dispute settlements, and the considered accountability of the expansive digital economy. Dr. Rajiv Kumar, Vice-Chairman, NITI Aayog, is certain that “Asia should take its traditional position as thought leader of the world… and it is unarguable that Asia’s economic status should reverse to before colonial times. The question is if the global economy is ready for it?”

 

Image Source: Pune International Centre

Dramatic Reading of Paper Moon by Rehana Munir

Aakanksha SinghLeave a comment

The best way to unwind on a Sunday evening is to be part of a cosy gathering in an even cosier bookstore involved in reading and conversations that revolve around books!

 

Trilogy is a beautiful bookstore tucked away in one of the lanes in Bandra, a neighbourhood in Mumbai. On Sunday, 9th December, it hosted a dramatic reading from Rehana Munir’s Paper Moon that was launched at the Tata Literature Live! this year in Title Waves bookstore in Mumbai. After the reading, the author and the owners of Trilogy engaged in an eye opening conversation about the nitty-gritty of running an independent bookstore.

Rehana Munir had also run a bookstore in Santacruz, The Reader’s Shop, in the mid 2000s. She was also part of the small yet rich bookshop, Paperback@Prithvi. Her debut novel is similarly based on opening and managing of a bookstore. The protagonist, Fiza, receives an inheritance to open a bookshop in Bandra which she christens as Paper Moon.

 

The dramatic reading was done by actors Mukul Chadda and Sheena Khalid. They read beautiful excerpts from the novel and brought the setting and characters to life. The excerpts that were read included the ones that describe why Fiza chose the name Paper Moon for the bookstore, about her relationship with the suave literary Iqbal who drops by her shop often and about Fiza’s own practical struggles with setting up a bookstore such as being overwhelmed in a book warehouse.

After the wonderful reading session, the owners of Trilogy, Ahalya and Meethil, were in conversation with Rehana about the trials and tribulations of running independent bookstores. They spoke about the practical matters of searching through thousands of books and catalogues to buy them for the store, of getting the right space and furniture, and of maintaining the space as well.

The big elephant in the room was of course the big franchise stores and e-commerce sites that provide a different kind of book buying experience. Ahalya was clear about putting the idea that of course an independent bookstore is also a business but one which is deeply involved with bringing personal experiences to the reader. She mentioned about how she loves to recommend books to people who drop by and how she has to step into the shoes of an FBI profiler to figure out what books to recommend. She also was quick to point out that appearances do not mean a thing when it comes to recommending a book to a customer. People surprise her and that’s one of the things that make her realise why she is in this profession. I guess, just like books, we cannot judge someone by the cover!

While it was a “meta moment” for Rehana, as she put it, to have written a book about a bookstore and to be discussing the same book in an independent bookstore itself, both Ahalya and Rehana also cautioned against thinking of opening a bookstore with a romanticised spirit. It definitely has its own challenges but has its own satisfying moments too. Readers fill them with those satisfying moments.

Additionally, you do get to read a lot as well and to broaden your reading habits because when it comes to stocking the shelves with books, you also have to think about a variety of books that different kinds of readers might enjoy!

And the thoughtfulness, detail, and variety on display on Trilogy’s bookshelves are a proof of the investment and time lovingly put into the store.

 

Follow Rehana Munir on Twitter!

Read the book excerpt here.

Buy the book here.

Follow Trilogy on Facebook for their latest events!

 

Takeaways from Tata Literature Live-2019

Aakanksha SinghLeave a comment

TATA Literature Live!: The Mumbai LitFest, 2019 concluded its 10th edition on 17th November 2019 (Sunday). It took place across in 3 locations across the city: Title Waves bookstore and the St. Paul’s Media Institute, Prithvi Theatre, and NCPA (National Centre for Performing Arts).

The literary festival began on 14th November and concluded with the presentation of Tata Literature Live! 2019 Awards on 17th evening at the NCPA, with the Lifetime Achievement Award being presented to Shanta Gokhale. TATA Literature Live! Book of The Year Award-Fiction was given to Raj Kamal Jha for his novel, The City and the Sea whereas TATA Literature Live! Book of The Year Award-Non Fiction was awarded to Early Indians: The Story of Our Ancestors and Where We Came From by Tony Joseph.
This year’s literary event hosted numerous sessions that were grouped by subject matter from literary discussions to history, from current affairs to environment and much more. We present them here under three broad themes –

Comics and Graphic Novels

A History of Women and Gender in Comics

The talk was jointly presented by Aarthi Parthasarthy and Arun Prasad. Aarthi is the creator of the web comic, Royal Existentials and is also part of the South Asian feminist collective, Kadak that creates graphic stories. Arun is a comic book archivist who began his career as a journalist but now is involved in collecting Indian comics and has created an unparalleled comics archive.

This informative talk began with Aarthi presenting the history of comics by women in the Western world, beginning from how women used comics during the Suffrage Movement. She ended with chronicling of Indian comic artists, their work and contribution. Arun talked about how he collected comics from all over India and also spoke widely about the varied and rare comics in his vast collection.

Their research which looks at the history of comics in India is based on this archive. As part of the research, they are going through the archive to find connections between the content of the comics and socio-political context of the country. It was indeed a knowledgeable session that also highlighted the need to uncover female comic artists in India as well.

The Graphic Novelist as a Satirist

The speakers for this talk were Appupen, David McKean and Aarthi Parthasarthy. Each spoke about the need to satirise through their work and emphasised on the role of satire as a critique of the powers that be. It was truly a visual feast as the speakers gave a glimpse into their work as well.

Both the talks were held at Title Waves which was absolutely perfect as the bookshop boasts of having a good collection of comics, graphic novels and manga.

 

Language and Writing

Double Speak

Double Speak was a panel discussion chaired by Annie Zaidi and on the panel were Shanta Gokhale and Andrey Kurkov. The discussion revolved around writing in more than one language and what it feels like to be able to think, read, and produce literary works in many different languages. The session was quite lively as both the speakers regaled the audience with entertaining anecdotes about their work. Kurkov speaks six languages and he emphasised how the tone of his writing is dependent on the language he uses. Shanta Gokhale, on the other hand, spoke of how she received encouragement from Nissim Ezekiel, no less, to write in Marathi and to pursue prose rather than poetry! Several such engaging tidbits had the audience in splits while also throwing light on their writing bilingual and multi lingual works.

 

Miscellaneous

The Little Festival

For the first time, Tata Literature Live! introduced something special for the kids called The Little Festival. Its aim was to inculcate the habit of reading among children and included several workshops conducted on various interesting topics such as creating cartoons, writing poems, writing mysterious characters etc. The Little Festival also hosted retelling of Shakespeare’s Macbeth for children.


You Cheeky Devil

Who says literature and reading has to be an individual pursuit alone? Banishing the notion of reading as being boring, the festival also had a literary quiz to bring out the literary nerd in all of us!

You Cheeky Devil was hosted by 94.3 RadioOne host, Hrishi K. The participants were an eclectic mix: famed Sanskrit scholar, Arshia Sattar; the quirky Historian, Manu S. Pillai; Journalist, Peter Griffin and Senior Commissioning Editor at Penguin Random House India, Manasi Subramaniam. The four participants fought each other over literary quotes, literary dumb charades and even a bout of Pictionary!

 

We also attended this year’s Bangalore Literature Festival. Take a look here – BLF2019. If you want to jump to specific sessions, we have picked 3 for you to start- 

Wanjiru Koinange from Kenya, on her book ‘The Havoc of Choice‘ .
Prasanna on his book Moola Ramayana.
Lisa Ray talks about her literary journey in Close to the Bone.

 

 

Tagore’s Classroom

JeevaNayagiLeave a comment

BoiTHEK is a bookstore in Bangalore that caters exclusively to Bengali readers in the city. The place also transforms itself into a cultural cafe encouraging many forms of art like music, dance and theatre. When a friend approached Bookstalkist to conduct a Yard of the Bard event in BoiTHEK, the first thought that flashed across our minds was Tagore. I have three copies of Gitanjali with me. One of them, I bought for myself and the other two of were gifted by Bengali friends, indeed.Thanks to my interactions with friends from West Bengal, I did know how Tagore, Gitanjali, and Rabindra Sangeet were celebrated by the Bengali speaking lot. However, being someone who weeps over Tagore’s The Cabuliwallah, I had to discuss the other aspects of Tagore’s mastery as well. So, we decided to discuss Tagore beyond his much revered Gitanjali and ask all those questions that have been lingering in our heads for long.

We began with “How do you connect with Tagore? ” The answer was almost unanimous – Rabindra Sangeet, except probably one who connects through his paintings. But just as we had feared not many of them had experienced Tagore beyond his songs. Interestingly, some of them had hated Tagore and his songs as a child and some of them learnt Tagore’s verses only to impress a girlfriend or partner. However, as they grew up they have come to look up to his songs as a panacea for all sorts of troubles in their lives. An important observation while discussing why Tagore was not read as much was that although Tagore never created for the galleries, the custodians of Tagore’s art seemed to have continued an ‘elitist’ approach and denied the masses an easier access to his works for a long time. Only in recent times have they opened it up for the public at large. While the statement might need to be validated with a larger audience, it was intriguing nonetheless. The above scenario also seemed to have paved way for people to appreciate writers like Satyajit Ray who came after Tagore. However irrespective of how much they had read of Tagore everyone clearly revered Tagore because he was the pride of Bengal.

The session was split into two parts. During the first part of the session we discussed the short stories of Tagore. When we introduced some of the short stories, some faces lit up in recognition. They had read a couple of them as a part of their curriculum and the group had the opportunity to go down the memory lane with those stories. Not only did we discuss the stories but also the hidden metaphors and messages that Tagore was leaving for his readers.Some of the stories that were discussed include The Cabulliwallah, Subha, Homecoming, The Child’s return, The Postmaster, Master Mashai etc. The group also dwelled briefly upon Gora and Chokher Bali. The short stories set the platform to discuss Tagore’s take on a lot of societal issues including women’s role in the society.

The second part of the session was designed to introduce the audience to the non-fictions of Tagore. Since it is impossible to talk of his works in entirety in an hour, we decided to focus on his collection of essays and lectures titled Nationalism. If there is one work of Tagore which need to be read thoroughly at this juncture of heightened nationalism and anti-nationalism, it must be ‘Nationalism’. We quoted for the audience few gems from the book. Some those quotes did leave the audience unsettled despite their adulation for Tagore. Nevertheless, we did have a bunch of open minded audience and the ideas from Tagore did leave them with something to ponder over. We hope that this pondering will help build a better society.

While the audience thought that they had not read much of Tagore, in reality they did start their first lessons in Bengali from Tagore. Even as we talk, Tagore’s Sahaj Path continues to be the first classroom for any beginner in Bengali. As we walked out of the discussion that evening, we knew for sure that at least some of them would take home a little more of Tagore to keep them company.

Yard of the Bards – Orwell and the language of politics

JeevaNayagiLeave a comment

It was only the beginning of summer and the day was 2nd April, 2017. Having already experienced a hot March we had to forego our usual meeting spot in Cubbon Park to find a better venue and a better time. Freedom Park, we thought would fit our needs apart from being the metaphorically appropriate venue for the subject we had chosen for discussion – “George Orwell and the language of politics”.  As the sun went down, they walked in one after the other eventually turning into a diverse group of interesting minds.

George Orwell had been a lot of things in his life from imperial police to teacher, but he is remembered the best as a writer, novelist and an essayist. Although Orwell did not live past 1950, his works have continued to influence not only his readers and other writers, but also the political culture of all these years. His creations rendered a new adjective to the language – Orwellian indicating a totalitarian regime and a set of whole new terms which continue to be relevant even in the modern societal and political discourses.

Introductions done and the ice molten, the group began with the reading of an excerpt from Orwell’s 1940 essay – “My Country Right or Left”. The excerpt was about Orwell’s memory of the First World War. That set the context for the first round of discussion which began with a question of “Are we living in an Orwellian world? “.  While some opined we probably are living in a post-Orwellian world which is worse than the Orwellian, there were also others who agreed it could be a reverse Orwellian effect. The discussion took off from there touching on the political scenario in India, in the USA; Gandhi, Hitler and the rewriting of history to suit the narrative of the rulers. The group also quoted examples of Standing Rock of North Dakota and delved a little deeper into the Aadhar scheme in India,

The group then went on to talk about doublethink, thought police, the concept of unpersoning with examples from the story of Nikolai Yezhov and the power of the ruling system as seen in the Tiananmen square massacre. The non-existence of privacy, the idea of alternate truths, winnability vs representation, corruption vs efficiency etc. were discussed too and out came some interesting questions which also drove the discussion. Some of these probably did not have a conclusive answer at the end, nevertheless we want to leave them here for our readers to ponder over.

How much of Orwell has come true today?

Is there a collective “We” who can be represented? Can this collective “Us” be represented at all? If yes, what would be the quality of that representation?

How powerful is the system? Is our view of the system a reductionist view?

Do we have constitution for the people or people for the constitution? Or is it what me make of it?

p.s: Our next event will be held on April 29, 2017 and the title is “Munshi Prem Chand and his Social Realism” . Follow our Facebook page for more updates on the event.

Yard of the Bards – Ayn Rand & Her Manifesto

Abhishek Jha1 Comment

On 19th February, it was the turn of The Bookworm (Church Street, Bangalore) to host us for a discussion on the philosophy of the Objectivism exponent – Ayn Rand. Ayn Rand, who has written a few of the most widely known books of all times including The Fountainhead and Atlas Shrugged has been a subject of great interest among readers of all ages and nations. We were aware by the virtue of our own readings and our discussions with fellow readers and friends that Ayn Rand’s usage of literary devices to drive her beliefs about man, society, and economy into the reader’s realms of imagination is intoxicating.

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Yard Of The Bards – A revolution is simmering in your neighbourhood!

TheSeer TeamLeave a comment

The expansive Cubbon Park seamlessly transforms into a cultural melting pot of the city on weekends. There are so many events happening at any particular time that one shouldn’t be surprised to find a couple of poetry events underway in two different corners of the park at the same time. However, when one is faced by the question – how much is enough? it becomes clear that no number of such events would be enough. Imagine a city, a village or a town with lines of the named and unnamed poets and vacillating voices of various developmental philosophies of the time, floating in the air. What pleasure it would be to see people discussing ideas and just ideas everywhere! Utopian dream? Maybe, but this group doesn’t care.

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