Women in sports, and the looming war over water will be the two topics under discussion during Malhar, the annual cultural festival of St. Xavier’s College, this year. The college also launched a mobile app, Conclave, for its students and festival attendees on Saturday.

Leading names from various fields will participate in Malhar Conclave 2019, to be held from August 15 to 17. Journalist and Padma Bhushan awardee Mark Tully and public interest litigator Arundhati Katju will be the keynote speakers.

“Malhar has been one of the most beautiful stages of my life. It is very good to see so many women as speakers for Malhar 2019. The discussion on the war over water will inspire the youth, creating the awareness about the importance of water,” journalist Rajdeep Sardesai said. He was the chief guest at a press conference held by the college on Saturday on Saturday.

The panel discussion on ‘Women in Sports’ will include consultant Vaidehi Vaidya, flyweight boxer Pinki Jangra, national level table tennis player Sanika Divekar and badminton champion Aparna Popat. It will be moderated by sports journalist K. Shriniwas Rao.

The second panel discussion, ‘The War over Water’, will be moderated by journalist Keya Acharya with researcher and author Dr. Jayanta Bandyopadhyay; World Resources Institute India’s Urban Water Program director Samrat Basak; activist Shripad Dharmadhikary; and environmentalist Chandra Bhushan taking part.

Other attractions include an interactive session with the all-woman crew of INSV Tarini and screening of the film Newton in the presence of screenwriter Mayank Tewari, editor Shweta Venkat and film critic Anupama Chopra.

The Malhar concert will be performed by songwriters Kunal Pandgale and Nitin Mishra and Gully Boy actor Chaitanya Sharma.

The mobile application, Conclave, has features like a campus map, biographies of the speakers, event schedule and details of the Malhar Work Force.