PANAJI: The 13th edition of D D Kosambi Festival of Ideas 2020 will be held at Dinanath Mangueshkar Kala Mandir, Campal-Panaji from January 27 to 30. Chief Minister Dr Pramod Sawant will inaugurate the four-day festival at 5 pm on Monday, January 27 in the presence of Panchayat Minister Mauvin Godinho and Minister of Art and Culture Govind Gaude and secretary (Art and Culture) Chokha Ram Garg along with other dignitaries. Speaking to reporters on Friday, Minister of Art and Culture Govind Gaude said that the directorate of art and culture every year initiates the D D Kosambi festival of Ideas to commemorate the legendary Damodar Dharmanand Kosambi, the Indian intellectual, mathematician, statistician, historian, polymath and multi-talented personality, who contributed to genetics by introducing Kosambi's map function. D D Kosambi Festival of Ideas will be organised involving the front-runners in various fields including governance, health, education, social thought, culture, technology, administration etc. This year Padma Shri Dr Karnam Malleswari, a retired Indian weightlifter; Padma Shri Dr Deepa Malik, first Indian woman medalist in paralympic games; Dr Kshama Fernandes, managing director and CEO, Northern Arc Capital and Dr Chhavi Rajawat, the first woman sarpanch with MBA in India, will share their thoughts and ideas with the people of Goa. On the inaugural day, Malleswari will deliver a talk on the topic "India at Olympics: Future of weightlifting sports"; on January 28, Dr Malik will speak on the topic "My soul is not paralysed"; on January 29, Dr Fernandes will speak on "Empowering Rockstars at the Rockbottom - journey to an inclusive world" and on January 30, Dr Rajawat will speak on the topic "When women rule." All lectures will start at 5 pm and the interaction sessions between the public and the speakers will be held subsequent to the talk delivered by the speakers to elucidate any doubts in the minds of the people. Gaude said that this year the directorate of art and culture had done an experiment by inviting all women speakers. He however declined to react when asked the reason for not inviting journalist Faye D'Souza when she was shortlisted as one of the speakers for this year's D D Kosambi Festival of Ideas. "She (Faye) was shortlisted but her name was not finalised due to various reasons. We finalised only four speakers for the festival," Gaude said. Gaude has requested the people of Goa especially students to exploit the potential of these illustrious personalities, gain knowledge imparted by them by attending the lectures in large numbers. Director of art and Culture Sagun Velip and deputy director of art and culture Ashok Parab were also present for press briefing.