The second edition of the Bhopal Literature and Art Festival (BLF) will be held from January 10 to 12, 2020 at Bharat Bhawan. There will be 56 Knowledge Sessions, and about 80 authors and distinguished literary and public affairs personalities will be discussing culture, environment, politics, contemporary affairs, management, literature and history.
Chief Minister of Madhya Pradesh Kamal Nath will be inaugurating the festival. Member of Parliament Shashi Tharoor is likely to attend the opening ceremony. The Sushila Devi Award for the Best Fiction Author in English in 2019 will be given away.
There will also be a launch of Anthony DeSa’s new collection of stories titled ‘One for Sorrow, Two for Joy’.
Chairman of the organizing committee Raghav Chandra and secretary Meera Dad informed that in view of the pressing challenges that we face because of climate change and poor management of the environment, there will be a special focus this year on the environment and conservation.
Among the key speakers this year will be Magasaysay Award winner and renowned water conservation man Rajendra Singh, Bharati Chaturvedi — founder of the acclaimed waste reduction body Chintan and has been recipient of the Knowledge of the World Award by John Hopkins University; Mridula Ramesh—author of the acclaimed, The Climate Solution and is an investor in clean technologies; Jairam Ramesh the former Union Minister of Environment who has written extensively on the Environment and Forest issues; Amita Baviskar a Professor at the Indian Institute of Economic Growth who writes about the sociology of environment; Pamela Malhotra who started the first private wildlife sanctuary in India located in Karnataka; Raghu Chundawat who is an eminent authority on tiger conservation; Professor Mahesh Rangarajan who heads the Liberal Arts and Environment faculty of Ashoka University and is a prolific author on environment history and; Prof Erach Bharucha, Director of the Bharati Vidyapeeth Institute of Environment Education and Research.
On international affairs the former Foreign Secretary and National Security Advisor Shivshankar Menon will be speaking about the intricacies in the making of India’s foreign policy. Pradeep Baijal will be speaking about how the onslaught of our powerful neighbor China can be contained. Minnie Vaid will talk about India’s space mission to Mars and its future’.
