Jaipur, 31 January 2025: The Friend of the Festival Lounge at Vedanta Presents Jaipur Literature Festival in association with Maruti Suzuki, powered by Vida 2025 is set to host an exclusive podcast session featuring renowned MasterChef judge Matt Preston in conversation with Akhilesh Sheoran, Brand Ambassador for Craft Spirits, Diageo India, on January 31, 2025, from 5 PM onwards. This invite-only event will explore the intersection of gastronomy, culture, and fine spirits, offering exclusive insights from two industry experts. Following the session, guests will enjoy a specially guided sensory exploration of Godawan 01 and Godawan 02, highlighting the craftsmanship and unique profiles of these exceptional spirits.
Godawan at Vedanta Presents Jaipur Literature Festival in association with Maruti Suzuki, powered by Vida 2025
Vedanta Presents Jaipur Literature Festival 2025 in Association with Maruti Suzuki, powered by Vida, a prestigious literary and cultural gathering this year places a special emphasis on conservation and the environment. As a brand deeply committed to sustainability and heritage, Godawan aligns with the festival’s vision of fostering dialogue on ecological preservation.
Among the Festival’s notable sessions today, The First Eco-Warriors: The Extraordinary Stories of the Bishnoi brings to light the legendary conservation efforts of the Bishnoi community. Featuring Martin Goodman and Narendra Budhnagar Bishnoi in conversation with Prakash Dan Detha, with an introduction by Akhilesh Sheoran, this session explores the rich legacy of the Bishnoi people in safeguarding wildlife and their environment. My Head For A Tree, by Martin Goodman, tells the inspiring story of the Bishnoi community of Rajasthan, who, for over 600 years, have defended nature with extraordinary dedication, often at great personal cost. From shielding trees against loggers to protecting wildlife from poachers, the Bishnoi way of life exemplifies indigenous activism. As climate change accelerates environmental degradation, Goodman reveals how the Bishnoi’s practices offer a powerful model for sustainable living and resilience.
Conservation & Sustainability: Preserving Heritage and Crafting a Greener Future
The Great Indian Bustard, a majestic bird and the inspiration behind Godawan, symbolizes the brand’s commitment to conservation. Once found across India, this critically endangered species now survives only in Rajasthan, with fewer than 150 remaining. In partnership with GramodayaSamajikSansthan (GSS), the Forest Department, and the Wildlife Institute of India (WII), Godawan has been actively restoring habitats through safe enclosures, water provision, and native grassland development. Every bottle sold contributes to these conservation efforts, ensuring a thriving ecosystem for the bird’s survival.
Godawan’s commitment extends to sustainability at its distillery in the Aravali Hills, which operates using locally sourced ingredients and is Asia’s first spirit distillery with the Alliance for Water Stewardship (AWS) Core Certification. It employs hydro panels to extract moisture from the air for blending and bottling and runs on 55% solar energy through a 406 KWP rooftop system. By supporting local barley farmers and implementing water-efficient practices, Godawan integrates heritage, conservation, and sustainability into every bottle it crafts.
Preeta Singh, President, Teamwork Arts, said, “With Godawan, we are proud to partner with a brand that offers a refined sensory experience while staying committed to environmental responsibility. Each year, we strive to further reduce our carbon footprint at the Festival, aiming for net zero in the coming years. As a literature festival, we have consistently prioritized environmental themes in our programming and will continue to do so.”
About Jaipur Literature Festival
Described as the ‘greatest literary show on Earth’, the Jaipur Literature Festival is a sumptuous feast of ideas. The past 17 years have seen it transform into a global literary phenomenon, having hosted nearly 2000 speakers and welcoming over a million book lovers from across India and the globe. As the years pass and the Festival grows, our core values remain unchanged: to serve as a democratic platform offering access to all. Every year, the Festival brings together a diverse mix of the world’s greatest writers, thinkers, humanitarians, politicians, business leaders, sports people, and entertainers on one stage to champion the freedom to express and engage in thoughtful debate and dialogue. Writers and Festival Directors Namita Gokhale and William Dalrymple, alongside Festival Producer Teamwork Arts, invite speakers to take part in the five-day programme set in the historic and dynamic state capital Jaipur. Past speakers have ranged from Nobel Laureates J.M. Coetzee, Orhan Pamuk, and Muhammad Yunus, Man Booker Prize winners Ben Okri, Margaret Atwood, and Paul Beatty, Sahitya Akademi winners Girish Karnad, Gulzar, Javed Akhtar, M.T. Vasudevan Nair as well as the late Mahasweta Devi and U.R. Ananthamurthy along with literary superstars including Amish Tripathi, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, and Vikram Seth. An annual event that goes beyond literature, the Festival has also hosted Amartya Sen, Amitabh Bachchan, the late A.P.J. Abdul Kalam, His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama, Oprah Winfrey, Stephen Fry, Thomas Piketty and former president of Afghanistan, Hamid Karzai.
Website: www.jaipurliteraturefestival.org
About Teamwork Arts
Teamwork Arts is a highly versatile production company with roots in the performing arts, social action and the corporate world. For over 30 years, Teamwork Arts has taken India to the world and brought the world to India, presenting the finest of Indian performers, writers , change makers and visual artistes in the knowledge and arts space in India and abroad. Every year, we produce over 33 festivals in 72 cities and 26 countries in the fields of performing & visual arts and literature. We produce the world’s largest literary gathering: the annual Jaipur Literature Festival; JLF international now travels to the US, UK, and Europe. Even amidst the upheaval and unsettling times of 2020 and through 2021, Teamwork Arts successfully launched the digital series, JLF Brave New World and Words Are Bridges, which were viewed by over 4.8 million people in their first season. Through its digital avatar, the Jaipur Literature Festival reached over 27 million viewers in January 2021. Art Matters empowers artistes across India to collaborate by commissioning them to create new works. The digital series Be Inspired was launched in 2021 – a series that crystal gazes into the future with conversations on science, technology, innovation, environment, and more. Three on-ground editions of ‘Be Inspired – Fast-Tracking the Future’ have been in India already. In 2024, Teamwork Arts collaborated with the Royal Family of Jaipur to produce the first edition of the Jaigarh Heritage Festival, presented by Vedanta.
