The National Education Policy (NEP) 2020 is a milestone document in the context of nation-building. VIF has thus planned to take up, in a series of webinars, issues arising out of the NEP-2020 which have a rather long-term bearing on the country’s development.

The Vivekananda International Foundation held a webinar on 20th August 2020 to discuss a book, Patterns in Past Settlements: Geospatial Analysis of Imprints of Cultural Heritage on Landscapes (forthcoming from Springer). The main speaker of the event was the author of this book, Dr. M B Rajani, Associate Professor at National Institute of Advanced Studies, Bangalore. The purpose of the webinar was to introduce people to the new methodologies being used in archaeological research with the help of modern technologies.

The Vivekananda International Foundation held an online discussion on 10th August 2020, on the subject of “Chikitsa Dharma (Medical Ethics): Insights from Ancient Indian Tradition”. The main aim of the discussion was to understand medical ethics in the historical, modern and general context so that India-specific issues such as current perceptions of doctor-patient relationship, approach to treatment of patients, issues faced by both doctors and patients during the pandemic, lack of faith in the medical institutions, the concept of holistic healthcare etc., can be addressed.

VIF has started a new lecture series called ‘Indian Philosophy for Beginners’. Lectures will be given on the Vedas, Upanisads and the Indian schools of philosophy, that will (a) introduce and explain these subjects lucidly to non-experts (mainly Indian and foreign diplomats, strategists, students and researchers from other disciplines), as well as (b) speak to Indian diplomats, foreign policy experts, students of strategic studies in a way that they are able to derive from it both insights as well as power for India's strategic thinking.