Favourite Talks
19th
September
Favourite Talks: Deb Roy
The Birth Of A Word
This talk by Deb Roy, a researcher at the Media Labs in MIT focuses on recognising coherent patterns from a random data-set. In this age of abundant social media communication where terabytes of data is generated every minute he explains how we can use this data effectively to by finding links between media and public opinions. He draws from his experiment on the foundations of a language to explain the factors involved in certain trends we can see in human interaction.
»19th
September
Favourite Talks: Nellie McKay
The Dog Song
Nellie McKay uses powerful imagery and music as a medium to pay rich tribute to her dead dog and reflects upon her life before and after the dog entered into her life. She describes how the dog helped her change and get out of problems. The loneliness and self-doubt vanished when she found someone who would stick by her at all times at any cost. She says that the constant companionship of her dog made her indifferent to others criticism and also made her realize how important it is in everyone’s life. Through the song, she implores us to do the same when she sings “If you wanna companion, Well just go right to the pound And find yourself a hound And make that doggie proud”.
»19th
September
Favourite Talks: Hans Rosling
Asia’s Rise — How And When
In this funny and compelling speech by Hans Rosling, he talks about Asia’s journey back to being the dominant and leading part of the world as it used to be in the past. Using the Gap Minder graph, he traces the historical similarities between India and China – colonization, deindustrialization and their growth in economy and life expectancy while also going deeper to explore the problems that these nations face. He talks about the inequities in macro-enonomics, health care, education and other factors in these nations and attempts to predict when the per capita income of the people in India and China will equal that of the US and UK.
»18th
September
Favourite Talks: Shashi Tharoor
Why Nations Should Pursue “Soft” Power
Shashi Tharoor, in this insightful speech at TEDIndia 2009, talks about the growing influence of India on the global stage and its potential as a soft power. Amidst speculation of the being the next super power, what can India really contribute to the world? What is soft power and how does it affect how countries are perceived in this modern age of information technology? He uses the examples of the cell phone, Bollywood and Indian television to talk about how we can expand our global influence and what we need to focus upon in the future.
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