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Moral Tales for Good Citizens
The Art of Praja-Dharma and Citizencraft
Roopa and Nitin will discuss ideas of the duties, morality and practice of citizenship from the Nitopadesha. The scope of the conversation will cover how citizens can achieve happiness, well-being and prosperity for themselves and future generations through the proper exercise of their power as ordinary citizens. Unlike the Arthashastra and the Panchatantra, which are texts meant for rulers & princes, the stories from the Nitopadesha are meant for citizens of all ages.
Speakers
Nitin Pai
Nitin Pai is co-founder and director of the Takshashila Institution, an independent centre for research and education in public policy. His current research includes information warfare, high tech geopolitics and the Indo-Pacific. He teaches international relations, public policy and ethical reasoning at Takshashila’s graduate programmes.
His most recent books are The Nitopadesha – Moral Tales for Good Citizens (Penguin Random House 2023) and India’s Marathon: Reshaping the Post-Pandemic World Order (ed) published in 2020. He is currently a columnist with Mint. He is an adjunct senior fellow at the Institute of South Asian Studies, Singapore and serves on the board of WaterAid India.
Pai spent over a decade in the Singapore government as a technology policymaker, and has worked in the undersea cable, satellite and mobile communications sector. He was a gold medalist from the National University of Singapore’s LKY School of Public Policy, an undergraduate scholar at Nanyang Technological University (NTU), and an alum of National College, Jayanagar, Bangalore.
Roopa Pai
Roopa Pai is one of India’s best-known writers for children. Many of her books are bestsellers, and enjoyed as much by adults as by children. Her best-known books include the 8-part Taranauts, India’s first fantasy-adventure series for children in English, So You Want To Know About Economics, and the award-winning The Gita For Children, listed by Amazon India as one of ‘100 Indian Books To Read In A Lifetime’.
As part of her long-time love affair with her hometown Bangalore, Roopa leads children and adults on history walks around her city with BangaloreWalks, a company she co-founded, and writes a regular column on the city’s history for the Hindustan Times. Her most recent book, Cubbon Park: The Green Heart of Bengaluru, the first history of the 152-year-old heritage park, was released in October 2022. She has also translated 100 poems of the celebrated Kannada poet, Padma Shri K S Nisar Ahmed, into English, and will be publishing them next year.
Roopa’s new book The Yoga Sutras for Children is slated for release at the end of the month.
