Chitra Subramaniam Duella to speak at The 7th Prakash Kardaley Memorial Lecture

Welcoming all to this prestigious public lecture

The 7^th Prakash Kardaley Memorial Lecture.

Date: Saturday, August 23^rd, 2014

Venue: Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan Hall, Off Senapati Bapat road, Pune (Turn right after

Hotel Marriott if you are coming from Symbiosis side on Senapati Bapat Road; turn left at Om Super Market if you are coming from Deep Bungalow Chowk on to Gokhale road; Turn left at Axis Bank if you are coming on Senapati Bapat Road from Aundh or Pashan side)

Chief Guest and Keynote Speaker: Chitra Subramaniam-Duella

President of the function: Vinita Kamte

Topic:  Media, Society and Governance

Organisers:
Prakash Kardaley Friend’s Forum

Prakash Kardaley Friend's Forum organizes an annual lecture in honour of Late Mr Prakash Kardaley, a renowned journalist and a pioneer in the RTI movement of India. Mr Kardaley was known for his incisive, citizen-oriented and public-empowerment journalism. He was also a stalwart RTI activist who awakened the urban masses of Maharashtra in using RTI, when the law was at its nascent stage. He worked very closely with Anna Hazare during the implementation and for propagation of RTI in Maharashtra. He was one of the crusaders who was part of the team to draft the National RTI Act. At a time when e-networking was relatively new, he had networked activists throughout the country through the humjanengeyahoo discussion group. He had also worked very closely with Arvind Kejriwal in the RTI movement.

The Prakash Kardaley Memorial Lecture is one of the prestigious events in the city’s calendar for socially aware citizens, media students and professionals. The eminent speakers for this memorial lecture have been: Aruna Roy, Arvind Kejriwal & Vinita Kamte, Shailesh Gandhi, Kiran Bedi& Anna Hazare, Rajdeep Sardesai and N Ram.

This year we are privileged to have internationally renowned journalist, Chitra Subramaniam-Duella as the chief guest and keynote speaker.

About Chitra Subramaniam-Duella

One of India’s best known media personalities, Chitra Subramaniam was the lead investigator in the Bofors-India arms deal – considered India’s Watergate – that contributed to the electoral defeat of former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi in 1989.

 Chitra Subramaniam is Founder, CSD consulting, Switzerland. She has some three decades of experience working in media, communications and advocacy at the highest levels in India and Europe. She has experienced personal risk as a journalist, managed risk for CEOs of Fortune 500 companies, assisted in complex multi-party negotiations, developed and run global campaigns for international organisations and writes speeches and think pieces for agenda-setters.

Subramaniam believes that in a world of growing ambitions and shrinking resources we are all staring at a trust deficit. Some career highlights:

• Senior Advisor to CEO and Managing Director of Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), the flagship company of the Indian conglomerate the TATA Group. Designed and drove innovative strategies for market-share in Europe. Negotiated the marketing contract with Ferrari making TCS the first Indian company to enter the Formula 1 circuit. Led on the

work of TCS’s presence and CEO relations in Davos, the annual meeting of global business and political leaders in Switzerland.

• Advisor, Wallenberg Group (Sweden) on specific projects in India including developing key networks and engaging appropriate marketing and communications strategies for their Investor Group of companies.

• Media advisor to former Norwegian Prime Minister Dr. Gro Harlem Bruntland’s campaign team for the post of Director General, World Health Organisation (WHO)

• Head of Policy Analysis and Communications for the Tobacco Free Initiative (TFI), WHO’s Cabinet Project under Dr. Brundtland. Developed a multi-country, multi-purpose communications and advocacy strategy to underpin the political work of negotiating the

world’s first health treaty The Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC) between 199 countries. This included a media campaign, another designed for civil society and the organisation of the first public hearings in the United Nations system.

• Developed and delivered India-entry political and communications strategy for the Global Alliance for Nutrition (GAIN), Geneva.

• Lead investigator in the Bofors-India arms deal – considered India’s Watergate – that contributed to the electoral defeat of former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi in 1989.

• 2002 – Geneva University. Completed doctoral course work on the role of communications as a determinant of public health. Incomplete thesis.

• 1981-1982: Master’s in Journalism, Stanford University, California, USA.

Fellowship student. Master’s thesis: "The political economy of transfer

of telecommunications to the third world." Electives included developmental economics and international trade and their impact on societies embarking on trade liberalization.

• 1978-1979: Post-graduate diploma in mass communication from the Indian Institute of Mass Communication (IIMC), New Delhi.

• 1975-1978: Bachelor’s (B.A. Honours) in English Literature, Lady Sri Ram College, Delhi University.

 Awards, recognition, membership

• Listed in the ‘’Who’s Who’’ of south - Asian women.

• B.D. Goenka Award for excellence in journalism (1990). This is India’s

highest journalism award.

• Best Indian woman journalist of the year 1990 (Chameli Devi Award).

• Past Member of the by-invitation-only Washington based Centre for Public Integrity – resigned after joining the WHO

• The Hindu award for outstanding all-round performance in journalism,

Indian Institute of Mass Communication, New Delhi (1979).

• Global Media Leader, World Economic Forum (WEF), Switzerland.

• Member of the Board, University of California in San Francisco (UCSF)

Tobacco Documents Research Library (2000-2002)

• Making News, Breaking News, Her Own Way (Tranquebar Press 2012)

Chapter in book on major woman journalists in India

• The Big Story (Penguin, 2003). Chapter in Penguin anthology on 10

media stories that shaped Indian democracy. Edited by B.G. Verghese

• India is for Sale (1997, UBSPD). Listed in the New York Times as an Indian

bestseller. Translated into Malayalam and Marathi.

• Bofors: The Story Behind the News’’ (1993, Viking). National bestseller.

Translated into Swedish, Malayalam and Marathi.

About Vinita Kamte

Vinita Kamte is a law graduate and wife of Late Ashok Kamte, Additional Commissioner, Mumbai, Eastern Region, who was killed by terrorists while bravely fighting them in the 26/11 Mumbai Terror attack. Vinita's courageous nature and one which does not tolerate injustice led her to investigate into the circumstances that led to her husband's death along with two other stalwart police officers, ATS Chief Hemant Karkare and Vijay Salaskar. Through the tenacious use of the RTI Act, she along with her twin sister Revati, came upon some scandalous and revealing information through call log records that showed negligence of the Control Room on that fateful night, that allegedly led to the death of these three officers. She penned a book based on these findings titled `To the last bullet' which to date is being widely read. Vinita continues to carry out her crusade with dogged determination.

About Prakash Kardaley

Prakash Kardaley  had a 40 year stint with The Indian Express. He was the Resident Editor of the Pune Edition of The Indian Express 1989 to 2000. Thereafter he was the Senior Editor (Express Initiatives) until early 2007, spreading knowledge and awareness about Right To Information (RTI) through news columns and citizen workshops.

Armed with a sharp news sense, a keen analytical mind and a forceful writing style, his byline enjoyed the kind of stature, which few others in the national press, then, did. His news stories were highly credible, innovative, thought-provoking and inspiring for the people to wake up and do something about the issues he raised. Investigative journalism had been his forte. A man of impeccable professional integrity, he had spotted and groomed several budding journalists who occupy senior positions in the profession today.

He founded the Express Citizens Forum (ECF) in the early 1990s and made it a very formidable citizen pressure group. The ECF picked up issues related to environment; drinking water pipeline for Pune; encroachment of pandals on public roads during Ganesh Festival; violation of building byelaws in Pune cantonment; road development through the verdant Law College Hill; poor construction of roads; plight of accident victims who do not get help from citizens and hospitals; drug orgies in the backyards of Koregaon Park; eliminating hardships of rural women during summer which brings in water supply crisis, and many more.

His affection for the defence fraternity reflected in the formation of the Express Citizens’ War Memorial Committee, which held a lecture series to celebrate the silver jubilee year of the victory of the Indo-Pak 1971 War in December 1996. The culmination of this was the birth of the idea of erecting a national war memorial through civilian citizen initiative. Kardaley through the dedicated committee members comprising stalwart former defence officers collected Rs.15 lakh mostly through individual contributions. The National War Memorial, which is a premier homage/tourist site of Pune was inaugurated on August 15, 1998. This war memorial, the only one of its kind in South  Asia built through citizen contribution and has the names of all soldiers from Maharashtra who laid down their lives in action since the country's independence, engraved in marble.

Kardaley also played a pioneering role in building the Wadgaon Victory Memorial
with the theme `Indians are second to none' off the old Pune-Mumbai highway to commemorate the Battle of Wadgaon, 1779, which he said had been deliberately suppressed by the British because they had suffered a humiliating defeat at the hands of the Marathas. He dug deep into history along with history scholars and researchers and resurrected this forgotten chapter of  Maratha history. Prominent citizens like Mr
Arun Firodia and Dr S B Mujumdar were Members of the committee that erected the victory pillar off this highway.

Since the year 2000, he totally devoted himself to the promotion of a law on Right To Information in Maharashtra and in India and had been networking with activists at the state, national and international levels. His incisive articles in the Express Initiatives page first introducing the Maharashtra Right to Information Act and then highlighting successes and failures, triumphs and tribulations of the users had a major impact on readers. He was also one of the silent participants in drafting the national Right To Information Act and was the wisdom master for prominent RTI activists in the country including Anna Hazare, Arvind Kejriwal and information commissioners. He conducted several workshops for citizens on the use of the transparency law in Maharashtra

Extremely net-savvy, he started the most popular and well-respected RTIe-group called`Hum Janenge' which provides a common platform for RTI advocates throughout the country to exchange information and share experience.

Till the last minute of his life, he was working like an ant for the society. He suddenly passed away on July 15, 2007. The memorial lecture is a way of paying tribute to the man who remained low profile and lived with the philosophy of `just do it.’

Members of Prakash Kardaley Friend’s Forum

The committee members of the `Friends of Prakash Kardaley Forum' are:

1.     Amol Kardaley, son of Prakash Kardaley who is a software
engineer in Australia

2.     Anand Agashe, veteran journalist who has held senior editorial
positions in Times of India, The Indian Express, Loksatta, Gomantak
and Sakal group.

3.     Vinita Deshmukh, senior journalist and RTI activist and
Consulting Editor, Moneylife

4.     Vijay Kumbhar, leading RTI activist who was the first person in
the country to inspect documents in a govt office under Section 4 of
the RTI Act

5.     Vivek Velankar, leading RTI activist and author

6.     Jugal Rathi, civic activist working for non-motorised transport,

7.    Shashikant Mehendale, leading transporter and war history scholar

8.     Sanjay Pawar, former Vice-President, marketing, DNA newspaper

9.    Sandeep Khardekar, social activist and politician

10.     Prof (Col) A Balasubramaniam, Founder Director, Balaji group
of educational institutes

11.     Vishwas Deshmukh, metallurgist, Vice President (HR), S N Joshi Consultants

12.     Anant Nadkarni, former senior Corporate leader. Tata group of companies

13. Nandakumar Kakirde, senior journalist and secretary, Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan