Words Count Festival 2019: Smriti Irani, Prasoon Joshi, Pavan Varma to speak at day-long event

The Words Count Festival, an initiative aimed at bringing together speakers from several socio-political spheres to share their insights on various pertinent issues, is set to be held on 3 February 2019 in Pune. [caption id=“attachment_5974671” align=“alignnone” width=“825”]  Minister of Textiles Smriti Irani and Chairman of the Central Board of Film Certification (CBFC) will be among the speakers at the Words Count Festival. Image via Facebook[/caption] Curated by the author Advaita Kala, the day-long event will feature talks that cover issues such as secularism, nation building and the journey of a writer, among other topics. Present at the event will be eminent figures such as the lyricist and chairman of the Central Board of Film Certification (CBFC) Prasoon Joshi, who will deliver a talk on ‘Musings on our Times’, and author and former minister Jairam Ramesh, who will also be interacting with those gathered. A panel discussion, From Blank Page to Book, features authors Kavita Kane, Dimple Kaul, Shefali Vaidya, Saiswaroopa Iyer, moderated by VK Karthika. Member of Parliament Assadudin Owaisi will also address the audience on the future of secularism in the country. The festival will start in the morning with the session, ‘How’s the Josh’, a talk delivered by Sunil Ambekar, the national organising secretary of the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP), followed by an interaction with author and member of parliament, Varun Gandhi. Pavan Varma, the author of works such as Being Indian and Adi Shankaracharya: Hinduism’s Greatest Thinker, will be awarded the WordSmith 2019 prize at the event. The Words Count Festival will close with a speech by the minister of Textiles, Smriti Irani, in a discussion titled, Scripting Her Story, From Star to Star Campaigner. Words Count Festival will be held on 3 February 2019 at JW Marriott in Pune. More details here.