Shimla: On the completion of fifty years of continuous publication of Seminar on 1st September 2009, the monthly journal started in 1959 by the late Raj and Romesh Thapar, the Indian Institute of Advanced Study, Shimla is organizing a special one day colloquium to discuss the role and need of public intellectual institutions in our national life on October 24, 2009.
Every month Seminar debates a single theme, inviting leading public intellectuals to discuss the theme in its various facets. Over the years Seminar has debated a wide variety of subjects – relating to public policy, politics, culture, the arts, literature, the state of our institutions, global developments and its contributors include scholars, journalists, politicians as also activists and cultural practitioners from both India and across the world.
The invitees for the discussion to be organised on October 24th include eminent personalities like Gopal Krishan Gandhi, Governor of West Bengal; Salman Khurshid, Union Minister for Corporate and Minority Affairs,  eminent writer, Nayantara Sahgal eminent writer, Shivshankar Menon, former Foreign Secretary, film maker, Shyam Benegal, film maker, eminent historian Ramchandra Guha, eminent historian, Sunil Khilnani, Political Scientist, Tarun Tejpal, Editor of Tehlka, Ram Manohar Reddy, Editor Economic and Political Weekly, Rudrangshu Mukherjee, Editor Telegraph, Hameed Haroon, Editor The Dawn, (Pakistan) Kanak Mani Dixit, Editor Himalag (Kathamandu), T.N. Ninan, Editor Business Standard, Kamal Hossain, Barister-at-Law, (Bangladesh), Harsh Sethi, Consulting Editor Seminar, Tejbir Singh, Editor Seminar, Malvika Singh, Publisher Seminar, Professor Peter Ronald deSouza, Director, IIAS, and Professor B. L. Mungekar, Chairman, IIAS, told A.K.Sharma, Public Relations Officer, Indian Institute of Advanced Studies.
