Day 1: February 13
10.00 am
Classical music by students of MOP Vaishnav College for Women
10.15 am
Engineering, medicine, skills or liberal arts: What does India need to focus on to become Incredible?
- Amitabh Kant, CEO, NITI Aayog
- Anbumani Ramadoss, Member of Parliament
- Chairperson: Shankkar Aiyar, Columnist
11:00 am
Can you crack UPSC with just your school curriculum and without your
friendly neighbourhood coaching centre?
- Anita Karwal, Chairperson, Central Board of Secondary Education
- Prasanth Nair, Deputy Secretary to Government of India, Ministry of New and Renewable Energy
- Israel Jebasingh, Former IAS Officer and Director, Officers IAS Academy
12:00 pm
Inauguration and address: Banwarilal Purohit, Governor of Tamil Nadu
Talking Point: Bharat Ratna Pranab Mukherjee's view from the Hill: Education and beyond
Chairperson: Prabhu Chawla, Editorial Director, TNIE
12.45 pm
Are we producing hyper nationalists or pseudo-secularists?
- Subramanian Swamy, Member of Parliament
- Jairam Ramesh, Member of Parliament
- Chairperson: Prabhu Chawla, Editorial Director, TNIE
2.00 pm
Are we investing enough in education infrastructure and research?
- Shekhar C Mande, Director General, Council for Scientific and Industrial Research
- Prabhat Jain, Director, Pathways World Schools
- Thirumurugan Gandhi, Activist and campaigner
- Prof E Suresh Kumar, Vice Chancellor, English and Foreign Languages University
- Dinesh Singh, Former VC, Delhi University
- Chairperson: Dr Debashis Chatterjee, Director, IIM Kozhikode
3.10 pm
Interlude: Education and the music within:
A lec-dem with the piano: Anil Srinivasan - Musician and educator
3.30 pm
Is the Public-Private relationship actually skilling India or killing education?
- T V Mohandas Pai, Chairman, Manipal Global Education
- Ashok Kamath, Chairman, Akshara Foundation
- Dilip Chenoy, Secretary General, FICCI
- Dr Sam Paul, Educationist and entrepreneur
- Prof Bhaskar Ramamurthi, Director, IIT Madras
- Chairperson: Parth Shah, Founder and President, Centre for Civil Society
5.00 pm
The big discussion: Lessons from the Epics: Should we have them in our textbooks?
- Amish Tripathi, Author
- Bibek Debroy, Economist and Author
- Chairperson: Ravi Shankar, The Sunday Standard
Day 2: February 14
10.00 am
Are we creating liberals, nationalists or Urban Naxals of Young India?
- Vivek Agnihotri, Filmmaker and Author
- Apsara Reddy, National General Secretary, All India Mahila Congress
- Chairperson: Shankkar Aiyar, Columnist
11.00 am
What does India's new education policy really need?
- Padma Sarangapani, Chairperson, Centre for Education Innovation and Action Research, TISS
- R Subrahmanyam, Higher Education Secretary, Govt of India
- Anil D Sahasrabudhe, Chairperson, All India Council for Technical Education
- Dr S Vaidhyasubramaniam, VC, SASTRA Deemed-to-be University
- J Krishna Kishore, CEO, AP Economic Development Board
- Chairperson: Anil Swarup, Former Secretary, Government of India
12.00 pm
Talking Point: Are we doing enough in schools to create a nationalist India?
- Kiran Bedi, Lieutenant Governor, Puducherry
- Vinay Sahasrabuddhe, National Vice-President, BJP
- Chairperson: Shankkar Aiyar, Columnist
12.30 pm
Does dissent still have a place in India's campuses?
- Dr S Subbaiah, National president, Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad
- N Sai Balaji, President, JNU Students' Union
- Tejasvi Surya, BJP IT Cell, Karnataka
- Nikhil Gupta, National Coordinator, Research Scholars of India
- Apeksha Priyadarshini, Bhagat Singh Ambedkar Students Organisation
- Kawalpreet Kaur, All India Students Association
- Chairperson: Rakesh Sinha, Rajya Sabha MP and Professor
2.00 pm
Is too much tech making young India un-creative?
- Jayaram Komati, Special Representative for North America, AP Govt
- Taran Singh, Founder, Melvano
- Mayank Kumar, Co-founder, UpGrad
- Prof Pushpesh Pant, Former Professor, JNU
- Malavika Banerjee, Director, Kolkata Literary Meet
- Chairperson: Dr S Vaidhyasubramaniam
2.45 pm
Modern lessons from ancient India: Have we learnt the right ones?
- Ashwin Sanghi, Author
- Bibek Debroy, Author and economist
- Chairperson: Pushpesh Pant, Former Professor, JNU
4.00 pm
Is India's education ecosystem stifling the underprivileged and rural masses?
- Feroze Varun Gandhi, Member of Parliament and Author
- Shashi Tharoor, Member of Parliament and Author
5.00 pm
The big session: Is India's education system divisive?
- Smriti Irani, Union Minister of Textiles, Government of India
- Farooq Abdullah, Former Chief Minister, Jammu and Kashmir
- Chairperson: Prabhu Chawla, Editorial Director, TNIE
* Speakers and schedule are subject to change