Oct 01 2025 to Oct 01 2025 6:30 p.m.

Where

Bangalore International Centre

7 4th Main Rd, Stage 2, Domlur 560071

Event Description

What does it take to dream beyond your time—and make those dreams real?

Vikram Sarabhai, founder of India’s space programme, imagined communication satellites that would educate people when even a modest rocket launch seemed audacious. He envisioned agricultural complexes powered by atomic energy, sea water turned drinkable, and a modern India fuelled by science and creativity. But Sarabhai was more than a scientist—he co-founded the Indian Institute of Management Ahmedabad, the National Institute of Design, the dance academy Darpana, and India’s first textile research cooperative, ATIRA. He also ran a thriving pharmaceutical company and launched India’s first market research organisation, ORG.

As India navigates its twenty-first century aspirations, this session revisits the humane, imaginative, yet pragmatic vision of a man who built enduring institutions. Drawing from Vikram Sarabhai: A Life, author Amrita Shah offers an intimate portrait of a multifaceted genius whose legacy continues to shape India’s present and future. She will be in conversation with Jahnavi Phalkey, exploring the many lives and lasting vision of this extraordinary builder of modern India.

The conversation will conclude with an audience Q&A.

Speakers

Amrita Shah
Author
Amrita Shah is a writer and journalist with a distinguished career spanning Elle, Debonair, and the Indian Express, as well as the US-based Time-Life News Service. She has been a fellow at leading institutions including the Indian Institute of Science, New York University, and the Johannesburg Institute for Advanced Study. Author of acclaimed works such as Vikram Sarabhai: A Life, Ahmedabad: A City in the World, and Telly-Guillotined, her writing combines narrative depth with cultural insight.

Jahnavi Phalkey
Filmmaker & Historian of Science & Technology
Jahnavi Phalkey is the founding director of Science Gallery Bengaluru and holds a PhD in the history of science and technology. Formerly on faculty at King’s College London, she is the author of Atomic State: Big Science in Twentieth Century India and co-editor of Science of Giants. She is also the editor-in-chief of South Asian Studies and the British Journal for the History of Science Themes, as well as director of the documentary Cyclotron. In 2023, she was awarded the Infosys Prize in Humanities.