On the eve of Independence Day, a function to honour Armed Forces Martyrs was held at the VIF Auditorium at 1830h on 14 Aug 10. The Keynote Address was delivered by Gen V N Sharma PVSM, AVSM (retd), former Chief of the Army Staff (and younger brother of Maj Somnath Sharma, independent India’s first PVC). He spoke on “The Indian Armed Forces: A Tradition of Honour and Leadership”. The families of Maj Sandeep Unnikrishnan AC (posthumous), Capt Vikram Batra PVC (posthumous) and Capt Vijayant Thapar VrC (posthumous) were felicitated.

Coinciding with the commemoration of Vijay Divas, Vivekananda International Foundation held a day-long seminar on “Recent Developments in J&K and Response Options”. An array of distinguished personalities from diverse areas of governance, and the media participated in the seminar. These included Shri Jagmohan and Shri G.C. Saxena, former Governors, J&K who chaired the sessions. The prominent speakers were Shri Muzaffar Baig MP (PDP), Shri Vijai Kapoor (former Lt governor Delhi and Chief Secretary J&K), Dr.

‘Let every politician declare publicly that he is honest – he can then be faulted for being corrupt: That is the first step!’

A delegation of intellectuals and prominent citizens from Manipur, led by Col(retd) H Bhuban Singh (former state minister and member of state Public Service Commission), Col (retd) Lokendra Singh, Mr Premananda Sharma (journalist), Bhavananda Singh, Salam Rupachandra and Amrik Singh Phawa visited the VIF and had an intensive interaction with the Director, selected Distinguished Fellows and other members of the VIF.They highlighted the intense suffering of the people of Manipur who are reeling under an economic blockade that has been continuing now for 42 days.This amounts to a virtual seige of

A very interesting and thought provoking session on "How to develop National Consensus on Critical National Issues" was held on 10 May 2010 at the VIF.The two speakers were Mr Manish Tewari, the articulate Member of Parliament from the Indian National Congress (Party spokesperson) and Dr. Chandan Mitra, former Member of the Rajya Sabha , Editor and Managing Director Pioneer and member of National Executive of BJP. Mr Mitra highlighted the need for consensus building in three primary areas - National Security, Foreign Policy and Macro-Economic Issues.

The VIF fraternity had an in-depth and stimulating interaction with Dr Ashley Tellis today. The discussions were marked by candour and frankness and generated useful insights into the current geopolitical scenario. The talk-cum-discussion lasted for over two hours and was highly instructive and useful.

A seminar was held at VIF on April 10, 2010 on “The Great Himalayan Watershed: Water Issues Impacting India- Perspectives and Challenges”. The seminar was organized in association with The Foundation for Non-violent Action. Speakers at the seminar were Claude Arpi, a French author and journalist, Ashok Jaitly, Distinguished Fellow and Director, Water Resources Division, TERI and Abhinaba Chakravarti of Pragya, an NGO. The aspects of regional water and environmental issues were discussed. Claude Arpi highlighted the issue of the impact of the Chinese proposal to divert the Brahmaputra river.

His Holiness Dalai Lama addressed a packed gathering of diplomats, intellectuals and eminent citizens in the auditorium of the Vivekananda International Foundation on 20 March 2010. In the talk, jointly organised by Vivekananda Internaitonal Foundation and the Association of Indian Diplomats, Dalai Lama covered wide range of subjects like ecological degradation, India's civilisational heritage, Non-Violence as an instrument of state policy, problems faced by Tibetean people etc.

Former US Deputy Secretary of State and Director, National Intelligence, John Negroponte visited Vivekananda International Foundation (VIF) on Wednesday, March 17, 2010, to interact with the senior faculty and scholars of VIF and a few seasoned strategic thinkers and diplomats from outside the Foundation.

A two-day seminar was organized by the VIF on March 11-12, 2010 that turned a laser beam focus on various security, strategic and foreign policy aspects of Afghanistan after the London Conference. The seminar “Afghanistan Beyond the London Conference: India’s Options” was held over three sessions, two on March 11 and one on March 12.

Alluding to a prophecy in the Shiv Puran, former Arunachal MP and Congress leader Kiren Rijuju on Saturday said that the world’s largest Shivlingam has been discovered in the state. “The discovery of more than 22 feet tall lingam was made a few years back in Ziro,” he said, hoping that it should become a major tourist destination.

The former Union Minister and China scholar, Dr. Subramanian Swamy, delivered a talk at the VIF auditorium, Chanakyapuri,  New Delhi on the topic of ‘China: Dimension of Threats to India’. The talk was a part of the monthly discussion series, Vimarsha organized by Vivekananda International Foundation, a ‘think tank’ in New Delhi, comprising leading security experts, diplomats, and intellectuals.

The fourth in the Annual Netaji Subhash Memorial lecture series on Netaji’s birth anniversary – January 23 was organized at FICCI on 23 Jan 2010 by Netaji Subhash Bose – INA Trust with active support from Vivekananda International Foundation, Rashtriya Jagriti Sansthan, Patriots Forum, and Institute for Conflict Management. The issue in focus was ‘India’s Strategic Challenges and its State of Preparedness to Defend Vital National Interests’.

Interaction with General Richard Myers, former Chairman of the joint chiefs of Staff, US

Former Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff of the United States had an interaction with VIF security experts on 19 January 2010.