Children’s rights activist Kailash Satyarthi, centre, at a session during the Jaipur Literature Festival 2025, in Jaipur, on January 30, 2025.
| Photo Credit: PTI
The 18th edition of the Jaipur Literature Festival (JLF) got off to a colourful start on Thursday (January 30, 2025)with an emphasis laid on bridging the divide between arts and sciences. In his keynote address at the inaugural session, Nobel laureate Venki Ramakrishnan said the technical expertise of scientists would be incomplete without “empathy and understanding of values”.
The annual literary event at Hotel Clarks Amer will witness the participation of over 300 speakers from across the world, representing a diverse array of voices and perspectives. The speakers include Nobel laureates, Booker Prize winners, poets, authors, diplomats and policymakers, with whom the visitors to the JLF will get a rare opportunity to meet.
Dr. Ramakrishnan said the humanity’s future would depend on its ability to deal with the seeming incongruity between sciences and humanities. “A broad curriculum will create a broadly literate population which will be less susceptible to being manipulated by demagogues and misinformation,” he said.
A folk artist at the ‘Jaipur Literature Festival’ (JLF), in Jaipur, on January 30, 2025.
| Photo Credit:
PTI
The acclaimed structural biologist said the technological advancements such as Artificial Intelligence (AI), gene editing and climate science could reshape the human existence, for which the basic scientific literacy should be promoted among the general public.
“At a time when the issues such as employment, food security, preparation for future pandemics and increasingly sophisticated weaponry gain centre stage, technologies like AI and genetic engineering carry tremendous promise as well as tremendous risks,” Dr. Ramakrishnan, who was conferred with the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 2009, said.
Dr. Ramakrishnan said there was a need to bring people from diverse fields who could work together to tackle highly complex issues with technical, political and social aspects. “Literature and other parts of the humanities like history have a great role in helping to break down the barriers. Scientists and science writers can help communicate complex ideas to the general public while also being sensitive to their social consequences.”
A troupe led by drummer Nathulal Solanki of Pushkar sangeet gharana performed with the blowing of conch shells at the inaugural event, while JLF producer Sanjoy K. Roy and co-directors Namita Gokhale and William Dalrymple addressed the opening session.
A rich array of themes ranging from strident geopolitics and upheavals of war and conflict to democracy, equality and constitutional ideals will be presented during the sessions at the festival, which will conclude on February 3. The biographies and memoirs section is also expected to provide insights into the lives of accomplished authors.
Published – January 31, 2025 08:14 am IST