A.R. VENKATACHALAPATHY, Professor at the Madras Institute of Development Studies, Chennai, has taught at universities in Tirunelveli, Chennai, Singapore and Chicago. Apart from the V.K.R.V. Rao Prize (History, 2007), he has received the Vilakku Pudumaippithan Award (2018) and Iyal Virudhu (2021), both for lifetime contribution to Tamil. He has published widely on the social, cultural and intellectual history of colonial Tamil Nadu. Apart from his scholarly writings in English, he has written/edited over 30 books in Tamil. His publications in English include The Brief History of a Very Big Book: The Making of the Tamil Encyclopaedia, Tamil Characters: Personalities, Politics, Culture; Who Owns That Song?: The Battle for Subramania Bharati’s Copyright; The Province of the Book: Scholars, Scribes, and Scribblers in Colonial Tamilnadu; In Those Days There Was No Coffee: Writings in Cultural History. Presently he is working on biographies of Periyar and V.O. Chidambaram Pillai.
ABDULLAH KHAN, a Mumbai-based screenwriter, novelist, literary critic, and banker, has contributed to numerous South Asian, American, and British literary journals and newspapers including The Hindu, Brooklyn Rail, Wasafiri, Frontline, Outlook among others. His debut novel, Patna Blues, has been translated into 10 languages worldwide. His second novel, A Man from Motihari, was published in April 2023.
Ajay Bisaria is a commentator on international affairs and a Distinguished Fellow at the Observer Research Foundation. He joined the Indian Foreign Service in 1987 and, in a career spanning 35 years, dealt with some of India’s key economic and security relationships. He served as Indian High Commissioner to Pakistan from 2017 to 2020. He has also been Indian High Commissioner to Canada and Ambassador to Poland & Lithuania. He has served in various capacities in the Ministry of External Affairs, Department of Commerce and the Prime Minister’s Office, where he was a key aide to Prime Minister Vajpayee from 1999 to 2004. He has recently written a book on the troubled diplomatic relationship between India and Pakistan.
AMISH is an author and a former diplomat. He published his first book in 2010 and has written 11 books (both fiction and non-fiction) till date. His books have sold seven million copies and been translated into 20 Indian and international languages. He is the fastest-selling author in Indian publishing history. Forbes India has regularly ranked Amish among the top 100 most influential celebrities in India. He was selected as an Eisenhower Fellow in 2014 and won the 21st Century Icon Award in the UK in 2021 and the Golden Book award for his novel Suheldev in 2022. He is also a host for TV documentaries, including for Discovery TV’s highly acclaimed and award-winning Legends of the Ramayan with Amish. In his diplomatic role, Amish worked as the Minister (Culture & Education) at the Indian High Commission to the UK and the Director of The Nehru Centre in London. Amish is an alumnus of the Indian Institute of Management (IIM) Calcutta. He received the Eminent Alumnus Award from IIM-Calcutta in 2017. He worked for 14 years in the financial services industry before turning to writing. Amish is a voracious reader, a music aficionado and was the lead singer in his college band in IIM-C. He was an active sportsperson, particularly in boxing and gymnastics, in his school and college days.
ANITA RATNAM is a celebrated performer of dance and theatre. As choreographer, writer, speaker and mentor her impact on the Indian performing arts has been recognised with awards and honours. As a culture catalyst, Anita’s work traverses a wide range — academia, youth outreach, motivational speaking and digital creation.
Anjan Sundaram is an award-winning author, journalist and television presenter, whose war correspondence has won a Frontline Club Award and a Reuters prize. Hailed as a ‘successor to Kapuscinski’, his previous books are Bad News: Last Journalists in a Dictatorship (an Amazon Book of the Year) and Stringer: A Reporter’s Journey in the Congo (a Royal African Society Book of the Year). Sundaram has reported from Central Africa for The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Daily Telegraph, The Guardian, The Observer, Granta, Foreign Policy, Politico and The Associated Press. His books have been featured by Christiane Amanpour and Fareed Zakaria on CNN; by Jon Stewart on The Daily Show; and on BBC Radio 4’s Book of the Week and Start the Week. Sundaram graduated from Yale University and holds a Ph.D. in Journalism and Literature from the University of East Anglia.
ANUJA CHAUHAN writes bestselling novels (seven so far), which sometimes feature war, cricket, murder, and Lok Sabha elections, and always feature romance and humour. All of them have been optioned by major film studios. She also works in advertising and is best known for her work on Pepsi, Mountain Dew and Kurkure. She writes a fortnightly column for The Week magazine. She lives outside Bengaluru with her husband Niret Alva. They have three grown-up children and a varying number of dogs and cats.
Anuradha Menon did a Master’s in Drama in London and moved to Mumbai to pursue her first love: the stage. For eight years, she was better known as her alter-ego VJ Lola Kutty on Channel V. Her stage credits include Lillete Dubey’s Sammy, Raell Padamsee’s Noises Off, Divya Palat’s A Personal War (that won at the Edinburgh Theatre festival); Rage’s One on One Part 1&2 and QTP’s God of Carnage. Anu does stand-up as well and opened for Brad Sherwood and Colin Mochrie of Whose Line Is It Anyway fame during their India tour. Her stand-up special, Wonder Menon, is the first Indian female special to feature on Amazon Prime. She also was a part of Jestination Unknown with Vir Das and a mentor on Comicstaan, both on Amazon Prime. She is the face of Pizza Hut in India and HDFC Bank’s Vigil Aunty. Her dream is to do a shampoo commercial or item number!
Arjun Appadurai is Emeritus Professor in Media, Culture and Communication at New York University, where he is also Senior Professor at the Institute for Public Knowledge. He is a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and was a Member of the UNESCO Commission on The Futures of Education. He is Co-Editor of Public Culture and serves on the Editorial Board of Global Perspectives. He has authored numerous books and scholarly articles, including Fear of Small Numbers: An Essay on the Geography of Anger, Modernity at Large: Cultural Dimensions of Globalization, The Future as a Cultural Fact: Essays on the Global Condition, and Banking on Words: The Failure of Language in the Age of Derivative Finance. His most recent book, co-authored with Neta Alexander, is Failure. His books have been translated into French, German, Spanish, Portuguese, Japanese, Chinese and Italian. He is currently working on a study of the new political lives of caste in India.
Ashish Rajadhyaksha is a film historian, and an occasional art curator. He is the author of John-Ghatak-Tarkovsky: Citizens, Filmmakers, Hackers, Encyclopaedia of Indian Cinema (with Paul Willemen), Indian Cinema from the Time of Celluloid: From Bollywood to the Emergency and other books. He co-curated the Bombay/Mumbai 1992-2001 section (with Geeta Kapur) of Century City: Art and Culture in the Modern Metropolis at the Tate Modern (2002), the You Don’t Belong festival of film and video in four cities in China (2011) and Memories of Cinema at the fourth Guangzhou Triennial, 2011, and the exhibition Tah-Satah: A Very Deep Surface: Mani Kaul and Ranbir Singh Kaleka: Between Film and Video at the Jawahar Kala Kendra, Jaipur (January-March 2017).
Bhavna Roy is a teacher, an author and the director of the Himanshu Roy Foundation. She was educated in Mussoorie, Pune and Mumbai. After graduating in psychology from Mumbai University, she qualified for the Indian Administrative Services. Having trained partly at the LBSNAA, she decided to quit and follow her passion for teaching and started to work as a volunteer in a school for special children in Malegaon, and then in an NGO in Nashik called SOS. She then tutored secondary and higher secondary students in software engineering in Mumbai. Bhavna has a keen interest in philosophy and has done extensive research in the field. Being an avid reader and always in the search for a meaningful life, Bhavna has a deep knowledge of the ancient Vedas and scriptures. She has published two books that she co-authored with her brother and celebrated author Amish: Dharma: Decoding the Epics for a Meaningful Life; and Idols: Unearthing the Power of Murti Puja.
Charu Nivedita is the author of nearly hundred works in Tamil, ranging from collections of essays to novels, anthologies of poetry to short stories. Known as a postmodern, transgressive writer, he is most interested in auto-fiction and meta-fiction. He is best known for the novel Zero Degree, which was longlisted for the 2013 edition of the Jan Michalski Prize for Literature and has found a place in several academic syllabi in India and overseas. His books Marginal Man, To Byzantium: A Turkey Travelogue, Unfaithfully Yours, Morgue Keeper, Antonin Artaud: The Body of a Rebel and Towards a Third Cinema have been translated into English and published by independent presses. Charu Nivedita lives in Chennai with his human and animal family.
Chef Manu Chandra , a Delhi native, is considered one of India’s leading culinary authorities and one of the most revered chefs in Bengaluru. From Cannes Film Festival to World Economic Forum’s Annual Meeting in Davos, Chandra’s skillful culinary artistry has been appreciated worldwide. With numerous honors under his belt — including Travel + Leisure’s “Restaurateur of the Year” and being on the list of top 10 chefs in India by Culinary Culture, a venture by Vir Sanghvi recognising India’s 30 top chefs — his ever-evolving cooking style lays fundamental emphasis on freshness of ingredients and constant evolution. One of India’s most well-respected chefs, he brought many firsts to India’s F&B culture. He is credited for opening the first Indian gastropub, bringing the open-faced bao and trendy Asian dining and its many interpretations to the forefront, the revival of India’s romance with Gin, and celebrating India’s biodiversity by championing Indian produce in progressive ways.
Chef Sashi Cheliah was born in Singapore as the eldest of seven children and was introduced to food at a young age through his mother’s café. His strongest memories are of his aunties and mother cooking meals for the growing family. Sashi’s commitment to food has grown since moving to Australia in 2011 as he began replicating the Indian, Malaysian and Chinese cooking of his youth. Based in the Star Unit of the Singapore Police Force for nearly a decade, Sashi was highly trained in special tactics and rescue operations. Working in counter terrorism, kidnappings and high-profile protection in the riot police, he enjoyed being both physically and mentally strong. This took him into the MasterChef Australia kitchen in 2018 where he became known as a king of flavour. Sashi made history by becoming the first contestant in 10 seasons to win two immunity pins, and he was ultimately crowned the winner after securing the biggest margin and highest score ever seen in a Grand Finale. The win helped him open an Asian-inspired restaurant “GajaBySashi” in Adelaide. He also runs pop-up restaurants around Australia and overseas. Sashi launched his own Chef meal kit for his fans that is available nationwide in Australia. He launched his first overseas restaurant in Chennai: Pandan Club is the first Modern Perankan restaurant in India and brings a delectable serving of Singapore and Malaysian cuisine. He unveiled his first cookbook, Kampong Boy, in November 2022. A homage to his childhood, he shares recipes that his family cooked for him and the street food he enjoyed eating while growing up in Singapore. Before winning MasterChef Australia, Sashi worked in the Justice Department in Melbourne and as a Prison Officer in a women’s prison in South Australia. He wants to continue this important work by providing assistance, rehabilitation and opportunities to ex-prisoners to obtain employment in the food industry.
Chef Thomas Zacharias, or ChefTZac, is an acclaimed chef with almost 15 years of professional cooking experience. His culinary journey began in his grandmother’s kitchen in Kerala. He graduated at the top of his class at the Welcomgroup Graduate School of Hotel Administration, Manipal, before honing his skills at the Culinary Institute of America (CIA), New York. He then worked under Chef Eric Ripert at the three-star Michelin restaurant, Le Bernardin. In 2014, a transformative culinary expedition across India reshaped his approach to food, inspiring him to become Chef-Partner at The Bombay Canteen, Mumbai. In April 2022, he founded The Locavore, a transformative platform centred around the idea of Doing Good Through Food in India and emerged not only as a chef but also a visionary, connecting people and food, cultivating awareness around sustainability, and empowering individuals to be agents of positive change through their food choices.
Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni is an award-winning writer and teacher, and the author of 22 books such as Mistress of Spices, Sister of My Heart, Palace of Illusions, The Forest of Enchantments, The Last Queen, and Independence. Her newest book is a biography, An Uncommon Love: The Early Life of Sudha and Narayan Murthy. Her work has been translated into 30 languages, including Dutch, Hebrew, Bengali, Hungarian, Turkish, Hindi and Japanese, made into films, plays and dance dramas, and performed as operas. Her awards include an American Book Award, a PEN Josephine Miles award, a Premio Scanno, and a Light of India award. The Economic Times has included her in their list of 20 Most Influential Global Indian Women. She has been an activist in the fields of education and domestic violence for many years and is the McDavid professor of Creative Writing in the internationally acclaimed Creative Writing Program at the University of Houston.
Cyrus Broacha is a prominent Indian television anchor, theater personality, comedian, political satirist, columnist, podcaster, and author. One of the most recognisable faces in Indian entertainment, he is best known for hosting MTV India’s show Bakra where unsuspecting people were pranked, and for The Week That Wasn’t on CNN-News18, a satirical take on current events. In addition to his work on television, Cyrus has been a prominent voice on the radio, hosting shows for many years. His style is marked by quick wit, improvisation, and a unique comedic flair. Beyond broadcast media, he’s contributed as a columnist to several newspapers and magazines and has authored a few books. Cyrus’s presence in the theatre world is also noteworthy. He has acted in numerous plays and has a deep-rooted passion for the stage. In recent years, he ventured into podcasting with his show “Cyrus Says”, where he interviews a variety of guests and gives his comedic take on current events. Throughout his diverse career, Cyrus Broacha has consistently entertained audiences with his humour, intelligence, and distinctive style.
Daisy Rockwell is an artist and Hindi-Urdu translator living in the U.S. She has translated numerous classic literary works from Hindi and Urdu into English, including Bhisham Sahni’s Tamas and Khadija Mastur’s The Women’s Courtyard. Her translation of Geetanjali Shree’s Hindi novel Tomb of Sand was the winner of the 2022 International Booker Prize and the 2022 Warwick Prize for Women in Translation. In 2020, she was the winner of MLA’s Aldo and Jeanne Scaglioni Prize for Translation of a Literary Work for Krishna Sobti’s A Gujarat Here, a Gujarat There. In 2023 she was awarded the Vani Foundation Distinguished Translator Award for her body of work.
DAVID DAVIDAR is a writer, anthologist, and publisher. Aleph Book Company, the literary publishing firm he co-founded with Rupa Publications India, won the Publisher of the Year in 2020 and 2022. His latest book, A Case of Indian Marvels, published in 2022, is an anthology that features the best Indian writers belonging to two cohorts: the millennial generation and Gen Z.
DEEPA REDDY is a cultural anthropologist with the University of Houston-Clear Lake. She has published widely on women’s activism in India, religious and ethnic politics, bioethics and blood donation, and caste as a form of ethnic identity. Her book, Religious Identity and Political Destiny, came out in 2006, and she’s part of an editorial collective that published a compendium of essays entitled Public Hinduisms in 2012. That volume is currently in the process of being revised and brought up to date. She blogs about food and ethnobotany as routes to cultural understanding on paticheri.com, has been attempting recreations of recipes from the Nalapākadarpaṇa, and is convener of SHĀLIKŪTA, a documentation project on Indian heritage rices.
DEVDUTT PATTANAIK writes on mythology, which he defines as cultural truths revealed through stories, symbols and rituals. He lectures on the relevance of both Indian and Western myths in modern life. In the last 25 years, he has authored and illustrated over 50 books, including Book of Ram and Dharmic Leadership. Known for his TED talk and TV shows such as Devlok and Business Sutra, he is a regular columnist for reputed newspapers like Times of India and Dainik Bhaskar. A medical doctor by training, Devdutt spent 15years working in the pharma and healthcare industry but, over the past decade, he has been fully immersed in exploring mythology and sharing its wisdom with the world.
G. Gurusamy is Assistant Professor and Head of Department of Tamil, Arul Anandar College, Karumathur, Madurai. His published works include Slanders and Sanctification Water – Land – Caste – Shastra; History of Tamil Literature; Exceptional Rules: Legacy of Veerasozhiyam; Exceptional Rules: Legacy of Tholkappiyam among others. He has also published over 40 research papers in various journals. His awards include Best Speaker Award from Bharati Yuva Kendra, Young Writers Award from CODISSIA-Coimbatore, Best Researcher Award (twice) from Arul Anandar College and Young Researcher Award from Tamil Thadam Magazine. He is a well-known speaker and has participated in many seminars and symposia.
G.N. DEVY’s books in English include After Amnesia, In another Tongue, Of Many Heroes, A Nomad called Thief, Painted Words, The Question of Silence, Countering Violence, The Crisis Within Knowledge and Mahabharata: The Epic and the Nation. He writes in Marathi and Gujarati as well. He has edited a large series of volumes on The Key Concepts in Indigenous Studies and another on Mahatma Gandhi in Indian Languages. Along with with Tony Joseph and Ravi Korisettar, he co-edited The Indians: Histories of a Civilisation covering the India past over the last 12000 years. The People’s Linguistic survey of India, which was initiated and led by him, covered 780 living languages of India. His work is spread over Literature, Aesthetics, Philosophy, Linguistics, Anthropology, Education and History. At present, he is working on a massive account of the Civilisation of Asia and Africa.
GOPALKRISHNA GANDHI is Distinguished Professor of History at Ashoka University, Sonepat, Haryana. His working career has been in public administration, diplomacy, and the exercise of constitutional responsibility. His published works include Refuge, a novel; Dara Shukoh, a play in English verse; The Oxford India Gandhi (ed.); The Tirukkural, a rendering in contemporary English verse of G.U. Pope’s translation of the Tamil classic; Abolishing the Death Penalty; Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi: Restless as Mercury (ed.); I am an Ordinary Man: Gandhi (1914-1948) (ed.). He has also translated Vikram Seth’s novel A Suitable Boy into Hindustani.
HARINI NAGENDRA is a professor of ecology at Azim Premji University, whose work has been recognised by numerous awards that include a Cozzarelli Prize from the U.S. National Academy of Sciences. Her non-fiction books include Nature in the City: Bengaluru in the Past, Present and Future; Cities and Canopies: Trees in Indian Cities, and Shades of Blue: Connecting the Drops in India’s Cities. The Bangalore Detectives Club, her first crime fiction novel, was one of the New York Times 100 Notable Books of 2022. Its sequel, Murder Under a Red Moon, is an Amazon USA Editor’s Pick for 2023. Harini lives in Bangalore with her family, in a home filled with maps. She loves trees, mysteries, and traditional recipes.
Jayati Ghosh taught economics at Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi for nearly 35 years, and is currently Professor of Economics at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, the U.S. She has authored and/ or edited 20 books and more than 200 scholarly articles. She has received several prizes, including the International Labour Organisation’s Decent Work Research Prize for 2011; and most recently the Galbraith award of the Agricultural and Applied Economics Association, “in recognition of breakthrough discoveries in economics and outstanding contributions to humanity through leadership, research and service.” She has advised governments in India and other countries and consulted for various international organizations. For two decades from 2002 to 2021, she was the Executive Secretary of International Development Economics Associates (www.networkideas.org). She is a member of several international boards and commissions, including the UN High-Level Advisory Board on Economic and Social Affairs, the WHO Council on the Economics of Health for All, and the UN Secretary General’s High-Level Advisory Board on Effective Multilateralism. She also writes regularly for popular media, including newspapers, journals and blogs.
K C VIJAYA KUMAR K.C. Vijaya Kumar, The Hindu’s Sports Editor, has been a journalist for more than 25 years. He primarily writes on sport besides doing book reviews cutting across genres, and features dealing with lifestyle, arts, tour-diaries and city-specific nostalgia pieces. An alumni of Loyola College, Chennai, Vijay did his Masters in English Literature, besides a PG Diploma in Journalism, from Asian College of Journalism, when it was based in Bengaluru. Previously he has worked with Tata Motors, Mumbai, and The Asian Age, Bengaluru. An avid reader with interests that include non-fiction, short stories, poetry, environment, regional literature and the good old murder mystery, Vijay believes in the power of the written word laced with elegance and mystique.
K. Srilata is a writer, translator and academic. Her latest book This Kind of Child: The ‘Disability’ Story (Westland), brings together first-person accounts, interviews and short fiction on the disability experience. Her books include five collections of poetry, the anthologies The Rapids of a Great River: The Penguin Book of Tamil Poetry, Short Fiction from South India (OUP), All the Worlds Between: A Collaborative Poetry Project Between India and Ireland (Yoda), and Lifescapes: Interviews with Contemporary Women Writers from Tamil Nadu (Women Unlimited). Srilata’s novel Table for Four (Penguin) was long- listed in 2009 for the Man Asian Literary Prize. Formerly a Professor of Literature at IIT-Madras, Srilata is now Professor and Director, Centre for Creative Writing and Translation, Sai University, Chennai.
KANAN GILL is an author, comedian and actor from Bengaluru. One of the founders of the Indian comedy scene, his notable works include Yours Sincerely (Netflix), Keep It Real (Prime Video), Comicstaan (Prime Video), Achaar & Co (Prime Video), Christmas as Usual (Netflix), and ‘Is This It?’. His highly anticipated debut novel, Acts of God, was released earlier this month.
Katharina Gorgen is the current Director of Goethe-Institut Chennai. She has worked as Lecturer and Research Associate at the Institute for Media Culture and Theater at the University of Cologne. She has a doctorate from the Film Studies Department of Johannes Gutenberg University, Mainz, on the topic “Female characters in contemporary Bollywood film”. She has studied media dramaturgy, theatre and film studies. She has been the DAAD language assistant at the Indian Institute of Technology, Mumbai. She is a polyglot who can speak fluent English, French and Hindi and Farsi, Tamil and has a good basic knowledge of Marathi and Sanskrit. As Director of Goethe-Institut Chennai, she has spearheaded various projects that bring together intercultural aspects and local history.
Kiran Manral is an author, TEDx speaker, columnist and mentor. In her previous avatars, she has been a journalist, researcher, festival curator and entrepreneur. She has received multiple awards, such as the Women Achievers Award by Young Environmentalists Association and the International Women’s Day Award 2018 from the Indian Council for UN Relations supported by the Ministry of Women and Child Welfare, Government of India, for excellence in the field of writing and Womennovator 1000 Women of Asia 2021. In 2022, she was named among the 75 Iconic Indian women in STEAM by Red Dot Foundation and Beyond Black, in collaboration with the Office of the Principal Scientific Advisor, Government of India, and British High Commission, New Delhi.
Mani Shankar Aiyar was educated at The Doon School, St. Stephen’s College and Cambridge, U.K. In 2010, his Cambridge college elected him an Honorary Fellow. He served for 26 years in the Indian Foreign Service, including a deputation to the Office of Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi. He was thrice elected to the Lower House of Parliament from Tamil Nadu and also served a six-year term in the Upper House. In 2006, he was conferred the Outstanding Parliamentarian Award. He served as a cabinet minister from 2004 to 2009, holding several different portfolios. He has thus far published nine books, including his latest, Memoirs of a Maverick.
CHEF MANU CHANDRA, a Delhi native, is considered one of India’s leading culinary authorities and one of the most revered chefs in Bengaluru. From Cannes Film Festival to World Economic Forum’s Annual Meeting in Davos, Chandra’s skillful culinary artistry has been appreciated worldwide. With numerous honors under his belt — including Travel + Leisure’s “Restaurateur of the Year” and being on the list of top 10 chefs in India by Culinary Culture, a venture by Vir Sanghvi recognising India’s 30 top chefs — his ever-evolving cooking style lays fundamental emphasis on freshness of ingredients and constant evolution. One of India’s most well-respected chefs, he brought many firsts to India’s F&B culture. He is credited for opening the first Indian gastropub, bringing the open-faced bao and trendy Asian dining and its many interpretations to the forefront, the revival of India’s romance with Gin, and celebrating India’s biodiversity by championing Indian produce in progressive ways.
Monika Halan is a personal finance writer, speaker and author who helps families get their money decisions right. Her 30-year career spans across media, public policy and financial education. She is the Founder of Dhan Chakra Financial Education and author of the bestselling books, Let’s Talk Money, which has been translated into Hindi, Marathi and Punjabi, and Let’s Talk Mutual Funds. She is the Chairperson of SEBI’s Advisory Committee for Investor Protection and Education Fund and a member of the Hybrid Securities Advisory Committee. She has public policy experience and has served on several high-profile government of India committees that have changed the regulation around consumer protection in India. She has four published academic papers in the field of household finance. She was a Director on the Financial Planning Standards Board India and is a Member of the Editor’s Guild. She has worked across various media organisations in India, including Mint, The Economic Times and The Indian Express, and was Editor for Outlook Money. She has run four successful TV series around personal finance in NDTV, Zee and Bloomberg India. She has an M.A. in Economics from the Delhi School of Economics and M.A. in Journalism Studies from the University of Wales. A Yale World Fellow (2011), Halan is based in New Delhi.
Montek Singh Ahluwalia was most recently Deputy Chairman of the Planning Commission of India, a Cabinet-level position that he held from July 2004 till May 2014. He has been a key figure in India’s economic reforms since the mid-1980s. Before joining the Government of India Mr. Ahluwalia held various positions in the World Bank, including Chief of the Income Distribution Division. From 1979 to 2001 he served the Government of India as Economic Advisor in the Ministry of Finance, after which he held a series of positions including Special Secretary to the Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi, Commerce Secretary, Secretary in the Department of Economic Affairs, Finance Secretary in the Ministry of Finance, Member of the Planning Commission and Member of the Economic Advisory Council to the Prime Minister. In 2001, Mr. Ahluwalia was appointed the first Director of the newly created Independent Evaluation Office of the International Monetary Fund, a position he held for three years resigning from it to return to India to become Deputy Chairman of the Planning Commission. He received a B.A. (Hons.) degree from St. Stephens College, Delhi University. He was a Rhodes Scholar and received an M.A. and an M.Phil degree in Economics from Oxford University. He has received several honorary doctorates, including the Doctor of Civil Law (Honoris Causa) from Oxford University. He has written on various aspects of development economics, including Indian economic policy, and his articles have been published in a number of professional international journals and in books. He co-authored Re-distribution with Growth: An Approach to Policy (1975). In 2011, he was awarded the prestigious Padma Vibhushan, India’s second highest civilian honour, by the President of India for his outstanding contribution to economic policy and public service. In 2019 he published Backstage: The story of India’s high growth years.
NANDINI KRISHNAN is the author of Hitched: The Modern Indian Woman and Arranged Marriage and Invisible Men: Inside India’s Transmasculine Networks. She is also the award-winning translator of Perumal Murugan’s Estuary and Four Strokes of Luck and Other Stories. Her translation of Kalki’s magnum opus Ponniyin Selvan is being released in 10 parts. She has translated Charu Nivedita’s Conversations with Aurangzeb: A Novel. Nandini’s novel-in-manuscript won the Writers of the World Festival prize, 2014. Her translation of Sajjad Haider Yaldram’s Save Me from My Friends was shortlisted for the Jawad Memorial Prize for Urdu-English Translation 2022. Nandini lives with dozens of animals, thousands of books, and a varying number of humans in Madras.
Narayan Lakshman is a Senior Associate Editor at The Hindu, As a member of the senior editorial management of the newspaper, he manages its opinion pages, writes editorial and opinion articles, and has curated special editorial projects including article series on India’s water and healthcare crises and investigative features. He has written over 2,000 articles to date. He regularly appears on news television channels as an expert political commentator. From February 2010, Dr. Lakshman served for six years as The Hindu’s U.S. correspondent based in Washington DC and earlier worked in the Tamil Nadu bureau at The Hindu’s Chennai headquarters. His doctoral research at the Development Studies Institute at the London School of Economics, on the political economy of poverty alleviation in India, was synthesised into a book titled Patrons of the Poor: Caste Politics and Policymaking in India (2011, OUP India). He also served as a consultant at the Asian Development Bank, where he authored a Working Paper on “The Political Economy of Good Governance for Poverty Alleviation Policies”. He has been a research analyst at a London-based hedge fund.
Neerja Chowdhury is an award-winning journalist, columnist, and political commentator. In the course of a distinguished career of over 40 years, she was political editor of the Indian Express for 10 years and covered the terms of eight Prime Ministers and 10 Lok Sabha elections. She has won several prestigious awards for her journalism including the first Chameli Devi Jain Award for Outstanding Women Mediapersons (1981), the India Today–PUCL Journalism for Human Rights Award (1983), and the Prem Bhatia Award for Best Political Reporting (2009–10). She is contributing editor, Indian Express, and her weekly column, ‘The Neerja Chowdhury Column’, is widely followed by participants and observers of contemporary Indian politics.
PERUMAL MURUGAN is the author of 11 novels and five collections of short stories, poems and a memoir as well as 10 books of non-fiction. He is the winner of ILF Samanvay Bhasha Samman 2015. In 2018, his books One Part Woman and Poonachi were long-listed for the National Book Awards for Translated Literature in the U.S. and Pyre was shortlisted for the JCB Prize, the Atta Galatta-BLF Award for Translated Literature and longlisted for the International Booker Prize 2023. His Seasons of the Palm was shortlisted for the Kiriyama Prize. He won the JCB Prize for Literature 2023 for his novel Fire Bird. He worked as the Principal of Anna College, Namakkal, from where he took voluntary retirement.
PUSHPAMALA N. has been called “the most entertaining artist-iconoclast of contemporary Indian art.” In her sharp and witty work as a photo- and video- and live performance artist, sculptor, writer, curator and provocateur, she seeks to subvert the dominant cultural discourse. She is one of the pioneers of conceptual art in India, known for her strongly feminist work and for her rejection of authenticity and embracing of multiple realities. Her work has been exhibited widely in India and internationally and is in major museum collections such as the Museum of Modern Art, New York; Tate Modern, London; Centre Pompidou, Paris, and KNMA Delhi. She was the Artistic Director of the Chennai Photo Biennale ‘Fauna of Mirrors’ in 2019. Pushpamala lives and works in Bengaluru.
Rakesh Raghunathan is a South Indian culinary ambassador, whose vision is to showcase the rich heritage of the region to global audiences. He brings a unique perspective and experience of South Indian cuisine, while also seeking to turn the spotlight on the custodians of these traditional knowledge systems. A food raconteur, armed with a wealth of anecdotal history, and a deep insight into socio-cultural practices, Rakesh has taken food to the realm of the performative. His presentations are a multi-sensory and aesthetic experience with an element of romance thrown in, as he draws his audiences into a space where food and art converge seamlessly. Rakesh is featured in the eminent panel of judges in MasterChef India, Tamil. His travels are documented in several TV shows.
Ramachandra Guha is a historian and biographer who is currently Distinguished University Professor at Krea University. He has previously taught at Stanford University, the Indian Institute of Science, and the London School of Economics. His books include The Unquiet Woods, a pioneering environmental history; A Corner of a Foreign Field, an award-winning social history of cricket; and India after Gandhi, a widely acclaimed history of India. He is also the author of a two-volume biography of Mahatma Gandhi (Gandhi Before India, and Gandhi: The Years that Changed the World), each of which was chosen as a book of the year by the New York Times. His most recent book is Rebels against the Raj. His books and essays have been translated into more than 20 languages. Guha’s awards include the Leopold-Hidy Prize of the American Society of Environmental History, the Howard Milton Prize of the British Society for Sports History, the Sahitya Akademi Award, and the Fukuoka Prize for contributions to Asian studies. He is the recipient of an honorary doctorate in the humanities from Yale University
Revati Laul is an independent journalist and rights activist who started her career as a television journalist when it wasn’t cool to be on TV and left for the world of print when it wasn’t cool to leave. Everything she does, including her first book, is counter intuitive. Her book, The Anatomy of Hate, is the first-ever account of the perpetrators of the pogrom against Muslims that took place in Gujarat in 2002. She now lives inside the imagination of her book, trying to create a world without hate because the story showed her that this can be done. She works through the Sarfaroshi Foundation, an NGO she set up in the district of Shamli in Uttar Pradesh.
Ronya Othman, born in Munich in 1993, writes poetry, prose and essays and works as a journalist. She has received many awards for her writing, including the Open Mike Poetry Prize, the MDR Literature Prize and the Caroline Schlegel Prize for Essay Writing. She was awarded the Mara Cassens Prize in 2020 for Die Sommer, her first novel, and the Orphil Debut Prize, the Horst Bienek Prize and the Horst Bingel Prize in 2022 for her poetry collection Die verbrechen (2021). An excerpt from Vierundsiebzig, her second novel, was awarded the Audience Prize of the Ingeborg Bachmann Competition in 2019. Ronya Othmann lives in Berlin.
Rosella Stephen is the editor of The Hindu Magazine and Literary Review. She was earlier editor of Weekend, the Saturday magazine at The Hindu, and launched Indulge, a lifestyle magazine at The New Indian Express in 2006. She has served on multiple panels on entertainment, art appreciation, luxury and leadership at various organisations, including The British Council, Biennale of Contemporary Sacred Art (BACS), IndiEarth Xchange, FDCI and Lakme Fashion Week. Culture is at an important inflection point, she says, and the access provided by digital, video and social makes this an interesting time to be documenting it.
Sanjay Kaul is an author, development policy analyst, and former IAS officer, who has over four decades of rich and professional experience in both the government and the private sectors. Kaul worked in the Indian Administrative Service (IAS) for 28 years and, thereafter, headed the National Commodity Management Services Limited (NCML) as MD and CEO (2008-19) and later as company Chairman (2019-21). In recent years, Kaul’s interest has shifted to policy advocacy in the human development sectors. Kaul is a Member of Karnataka Government’s Education Commission and Chairperson of the Government of India’s Early Childhood Care and Education (ECCE) Task Force. Kaul supports several not-for-profit organisations and serves on the Boards of Mobile Creches, SEWA GRIH RIN Ltd. (SGRL), DIGIGRAIN SOLUTIONS, the World Food Programme (WFP) Trust in India and the Karnataka Health Promotion Trust (KHPT). His book, An Alternative Development Agenda for India, was recently published by Routledge.
SHALIN MARIA LAWRENCE is a Dalit activist, intersectional feminist, author and orator. Hailing from the oppressed working-class community of North Madras, she writes on social issues, especially gender justice, arts, cinema, caste and politics, and has published three books in Tamil: Vadachennaikari, Jency En Kuraivaaga Paadinaar and Sandaikaarigal. Two books in English — on intersectional feminism and caste and a short story collection — will be published this year. She has been working towards the empowerment of oppressed women and men for the past decade. Her area of activism involves caste and gender-based violence. She collaborates with various human rights organisations across India and conducts regular workshops on violence against women, caste and masculinity, women’s rights and leadership among urban and rural women. Her column — “Aankalai Punpaduthum Pakkangal” — in the Tamil magazine Kumudham successfully ran for 72 weeks. Her bylines in English have appeared in The Hindu, The Quint, The South First, The Newsminute, The New Indian Express, Firstpost, and Behanbox .She received the UN population first’s LAADLI award in 2021 for gender sensitivity in news and media for the south region. She is a regular speaker at academic institutions on cinema, arts, social issues and gender justiceand a digital media orator.
SHASHI THAROOR (Dr.), a third-term Member of Parliament for Thiruvananthapuram, is the bestselling author of 25 books, both fiction and non-fiction, besides being a former Under Secretary-General of the United Nations and a former Minister of State for Human Resource Development and for External Affairs in the Government of India. He has won numerous awards, including the Pravasi Bharatiya Samman, a Commonwealth Writers’ Prize and the Crossword Lifetime Achievement Award. In 2019, Dr. Tharoor was also awarded the Sahitya Akademi Award in the category of ‘English Non-Fiction’ for his book An Era of Darkness. He chairs Parliament’s Standing Committee on Chemicals and Fertilizers and has previously chaired the Standing Committee on External Affairs and the Committee on Information Technology.
Shonali Muthalaly is an Associate Editor at The Hindu, running the MetroPlus and Weekend supplements. A Chevening scholar, she writes and reports on the intersection between food and culture, and oversees The Hindu’s food vertical, building a product that engages with both diners and professionals in the culinary space. She also writes on theatre, art and travel.
SHOVANA NARAYAN is an acclaimed Kathak performer, Guru and choreographer with a career spanning almost seven decades. She received the Padma Shri from the Government of India in 1992, the central Sangeet Natak Akademi award in 2001, the Delhi Government’s Parishad Samman in 1992 and the Bihar Government’s Rashtriya Samman in 2021. She is recipient of over 45 national and international awards. Maintaining the classicality of her art, she is a silent activist constantly pushing its frontiers to contemporarization of themes and newer expressions. Apart from being an eminent Kathak guru, performer, and choreographer, she is also a career bureaucrat in the Indian Audit and Accounts Service (1976 batch) till her retirement in 2010. She holds an M.Sc. in Physics and two M.Phil degrees and a Doctor of Letters (HC) and is a keen educationist and research scholar who has served/is serving on various governing bodies of presitigious academic institutions. She has authored over 19 books, several research papers and over 500 articles She is currently engaged in conceptualising, ideating and choreographing her new dance production, besides teaching, holding workshops, the forthcoming LalitArpan Festival and completing her next book
Shunali Khullar Shroff is an author, journalist, screenwriter and podcaster. She is the author of the bestselling books Love in the Time of Affluenza and Battle Hymn of a Bewildered Mother. Shunali writes for a host of print and digital publications on modern Indian life, culture, travel and feminism. Her podcast, Not Your Aunty, is co-hosted with fellow author and friend Kiran Manral.
Shweta Singh Kirti, a fashion designer trained at India’s National Institute of Fashion Technology (NIFT), transformed her career trajectory after obtaining an MBA in the U.S. Her fusion of business acumen and spirituality birthed into a passion project called Damara Kids, an online mindfulness programme for children. Beyond this, Shweta is involved in several non-profit initiatives and has served on the board of OMniAwareness. As a public figure, she serves as a Thought Leader in the realms of holistic well-being and spiritual enlightenment. Following the tragic loss of her brother, Sushant Singh Rajput, she embarked on several months of extensive solitary retreats, which gave birth to the book Pain: A Portal to Enlightenment.
SOMANATH S. is a Distinguished Scientist (Apex Grade); Secretary, Department of Space; Chairman, Space Commission; and Chairman, ISRO since January 14, 2022. An expert in the area of system engineering of launch vehicles, he has had a distinguished career of nearly 38 years and has made significant contributions in the area of space technology. As Secretary, he piloted the National Space Policy, facilitated IN-SPACe activation, engagement of ISRO with new space actors in NGPE & start-ups. Chandrayaan-3 mission was a great success under his leadership. He plays a crucial role for the ambitious Gaganyaan mission to send Indians to Space. Under his leadership, two new launch vehicles, i.e. Small Satellite Launch Vehicle (SSLV) and Test Vehicle (TV) were introduced, and missions were successfully accomplished. In his previous assignment as Director, Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre (VSSC) in 2018, the lead Centre of ISRO, he was responsible for Launch vehicle technology development and VSSC achieved significant feats like Crew Escape System demonstration through Pad Abort Test (PAT), launch of GSLV Mk-III M1/Chandrayaan 2 etc. He spearheaded the development of critical systems for the Gaganyaan programme, development of Small Satellite Launch Vehicle, Re-usable Launch Vehicle & Air-Breathing Launch Vehicle programmes. Before that, he was the Director of Liquid Propulsion Systems Centre (LPSC) where he led the team to complete the development and qualification of CE20 cryogenic engine and the C25 stage, which was successfully flown in GSLV Mk-III D1 flight. In his capacity as the Project Director of GSLV Mk-III Launch vehicle, the first Experimental flight of LVM3-X/CARE mission was successfully accomplished on December 18, 2014. He is a Fellow of Indian National Academy of Engineering (INAE), Fellow of Aeronautical Society of India (AeSI), Astronautical Society of India (ASI), National Academy of Sciences, India and a member of International Academy of Astronautics (IAA). He has published several papers in journals and seminars in the area of structural dynamics and control, dynamic analysis of separation mechanisms, vibration & acoustic testing, launch vehicle design and launch services management.
Sreenivasan Jain is an award-winning broadcaster and journalist. He began his career in 1995 as a reporter at New Delhi Television, a 24-hours news and current affair broadcaster. Between 2003-2011, he served as NDTV’s station chief in Mumbai. When he resigned from NDTV in 2023, he was the network’s Group Editor. In a career spanning three decades, he has reported on wars, elections, insurgencies, majoritarianism, corruption scandals and democratic struggles. His notable broadcast work includes the weekly ground reportage/investigative show Truth vs Hype, and Reality Check, a daily show debunking official myths and government propaganda. He has written columns and reported pieces for Business Standard, DNA, Outlook, The Week magazine and Open magazine, and is the co-author of Love Jihad and Other Fictions: Simple Facts to Counter Viral Falsehoods, which interrogates Hindutva conspiracy theories. Jain has been awarded Journalist of the Year at the Ramnath Goenka Awards in 2014, and at the Red Ink Awards in 2015. He is a multiple-time winner of the ENBA Awards and the News Television Awards. In 2007, he won the World Silver Medal at the New York Festivals for a report on agrarian distress in Maharashtra. He is based in New Delhi.
Stalin Rajangam, a pre-eminent figure in Tamil literary and academic circles, is renowned primarily for his groundbreaking research on Tamil political reformist Ayothi Dasa Pandithar. A professor at Madurai American College, Tamil Nadu, his work is pivotal in Tamil Subaltern Studies, offering deep insights into marginalized narratives and Dalit history. Author of over 15 books and contributor to prestigious publications like The Wire, Economic and Political Weekly, and The Hindu, Stalin’s essays intertwine meticulous research with profound perspectives. Honoured with the Sparrow Award for Literature (2017) and Vilakku Award (2022), he continues to shape Tamil intellectual discourse, significantly influencing contemporary thought and cultural understanding.
Subodh Kerkar was born in Keri, a picturesque village on the northern border of Goa. A qualified medical professional, he gave up medicine to pursue arts 30 years ago. He is an artist and an activist and uses art to comment on social, political, religious and other issues. His art practice includes paintings, drawings, sculptures, installations, videos, performances and land art. He has carved a niche for himself, especially in the field of conceptual art and land art. Subodh Kerkar’s installations are heavily washed by the ocean, both literally and metaphorically. He creates his ephemeral installations using thousands of mussel shells, pebbles, palm leaves, boats, fishermen and sand. The ocean is both inside and outside his works, his master and his muse. He has exhibited widely in galleries, museums and biennales around the world and is the Founding Director of Museum of Goa (MOG). Presently, he also holds the Mario Miranda Chair as a Visiting Research Professor at Goa University. He lives and works in Goa.
SUDHANVA DESHPANDE is a theatre director, film and theatre actor, and the author of Halla Bol: The Death and Life of Safdar Hashmi. He joined the Delhi-based group Jana Natya Manch in 1987 and has acted in over 4,000 performances of over 80 plays. His articles and essays have appeared in several journals and books. He has co-directed two films on the theatre legend Habib Tanvir and his company Naya Theatre. He is the editor of Theatre of the Streets: The Jana Natya Manch Experience, and co-editor of Our Stage: Pleasures and Perils of Theatre Practice in India. He has held teaching positions at the National Institute of Design, Ahmedabad, and AJK Mass Communication Research Centre, Jamia Millia Islamia, New Delhi. Since 1998, he has been Managing Editor, LeftWord Books. He has appeared in films and web series such as Pink, Grahan, Rangbaaz 3, Vikram Vedha and Jawan.
SURESH BALAKRISHNA is an accomplished media and advertising veteran with over three decades of experience. He is a visionary and is known for his feisty spirit and can-do attitude. Currently, he is the Chief Revenue Office of The Hindu Group. He has been a key influencer in the group’s continued growth trajectory. He has established many marquee events and has been instrumental in reimagining them in the virtual format. Under his leadership, the brands of The Hindu Group have conceptualised community-building initiatives to effectively engage audiences. He is also a highly sought-after speaker at industry events and also serves on juries regularly. A natural leader who truly believes in teamwork, he creates a healthy working environment and always encourages his team to aim big. He has rich experience in strategy, operations and marketing in the media industry. Before joining The Hindu Group, he was Chief Executive Officer, South Asia and Middle East, Kinetic Advertising India (part of WWP Group). He started his career in 1987 and has been a part of the leadership team of many media and advertising organisations like Lintas, HT, Zee Network, BPN, Mail Today, among others.
T.M. KRISHNA or Thodur Madabusi Krishna is a pre-eminent Karnatik vocalist and public intellectual who speaks and writes about issues affecting the human condition and matters of culture. Krishna has started and is involved with many organisations that work across the spectrum of music and culture. He has co-authored Voices Within: Carnatic Music – Passing on an Inheritance, a book dedicated to the greats of Karnatik music. A Southern Music: The Karnatik Story won the 2014 Tata Literature Award for Best First Book in the non-fiction category. His latest book Sebastian and Sons received the Tata Lit Live Award for the Best Non-Fiction book for 2020. In 2016, Krishna received the Ramon Magsaysay Award in recognition of ‘his forceful commitment as artist and advocate to art’s power to heal India’s deep social divisions’. He has collaborated with contemporary Tamil writer Perumal Murugan to bring his poetry onto the ‘classical’ stage and also brought the poetry of social reformer and philosopher, Sree Narayana Guru, into the Karnatik fold. In collaboration with Ashoka University, T.M. Krishna is now involved in The Edict Project, an attempt to reimagine Ashoka’s edicts in musical form.
T.N. NINAN has been an award-winning editor, TV commentator and board chairman of Business Standard Pvt Ltd. He currently writes a closely followed weekly column, ‘Weekend Ruminations’, in Business Standard. His book, The Turn of the Tortoise, assessed India’s performance and prospects. Ninan has edited Business Standard, The Economic Times and Business World, leading transformational change and achieving rapid growth in all of them. He was also the executive editor at India Today in the 1980s. He serves as Chairman of the Independent and Public Spirited Media Foundation and is a past president of the Editors Guild of India. He is a recipient of awards, including two for lifetime achievement.
Tarana Husain Khan is a writer and food historian. She is the author of critically acclaimed books, Degh to Dastarkhwan: Qissas and Recipes from Rampur, which explores Rampur’s culinary history, and a historical fiction The Begum and the Dastan. Her writings on the oral history, culture and the famed cuisine of the erstwhile princely state of Rampur have appeared in prominent publications. She has co-edited and contributed to the recently published anthology Forgotten Foods: Memories and Recipes from Muslim South Asia. She is currently working as a Research Fellow at the University of Sheffield on an Arts and Humanities Research Council funded project to revive heirloom recipes and rice varieties.
Tarun Mehrishi is a lawyer from the National Law School in Bengaluru and a graduate of the Indian School of Business in Hyderabad. He has worked as a corporate lawyer, as the chief operating officer for a sports marketing company in Delhi, and as the head of consulting for India’s leading sports marketing outfit. In addition to writing, Tarun is currently pursuing his other passion in entrepreneurship and is the co-founder of Astylos Energy, an EV start-up. Tarun lives in Delhi with his wife Aastha, son Shaurya, and his parents Rajiv and Mira.
Tarun Tahliani founded his design studio in 1995. He started his professional career with a degree in Business Management from the Wharton School of Business, University of Pennsylvania. After returning to India, he saw the vast potential in the fine clothing and couture industry that was evolving in the country, and in 1987, he opened India’s first multi-designer boutique, Ensemble, heralding a fashion and retail revolution in the country. In 1991, Tahiliani decided to hone his technical knowledge in design, and received an associate degree from the Fashion Institute of Technology, New York.
TEJASWINI APTE-RAHM is a writer from Mumbai. The Secret of More, her first novel, won the Tata Literature Live! Book of the Year Fiction Award 2023. It was also shortlisted for the JCB Prize for Literature, Atta Galatta-Bangalore Litfest Award, and Tagore Literary Prize, and longlisted for the Kalinga Literary Festival Award. Her short story collection, These Circuses That Sweep Through the Landscape, was shortlisted in 2017 for the Shakti Bhatt First Book Prize and Tata Literature Live! First Book Award. Her fiction has appeared in various publications. She has worked as a journalist and environmental researcher. She co-authored The Poop Book!, an environmental children’s book, nominated for the Jarul Book Award 2021-22, and translated into Tibetan. She lives in Germany.
VARGHESE K. GEORGE is Resident Editor, The Hindu, in New Delhi. He has previously worked as the newspaper’s U.S. correspondent, based in Washington, DC, and political editor, based in New Delhi. He has written extensively on politics, political economy, society and the foreign policy of India and the U.S., particularly the rise of nationalism in both countries in recent years and its impact on their ties with the world. Prior to joining The Hindu, he was chief of bureau at Hindustan Times. He has also worked for the Indian Express in various roles. His reports have won several awards, including the Ramnath Goenka Journalist of the Year, the Prem Bhatia Memorial Award for Excellence in Political Reporting, the Transparency International Award for fighting corruption and the International Press Institute Award for Excellence in Journalism. His book Open Embrace: India-US ties in a Divided World is an exploration of how hyper nationalist domestic politics are reshaping the strategic priorities of the world’s oldest and the biggest democracies, and their relations. The book draws from his experience of covering domestic politics and foreign policy in both India and the US. Varghese has an M.A. in Modern Indian History (Delhi University) and M.Phil. in International Relations (Jawaharlal Nehru University).
William Dalrymple is one of Britain’s great historians and the bestselling author of the Wolfson Prize-winning White Mughals, The Last Mughal, which won the Duff Cooper Prize, the Hemingway and Kapuscinski Prize-winning Return of a King, and The Anarchy, (which was one of Barack Obama’s favourite books of 2019 and was shortlisted for Tata Literature Live Prize). A frequent broadcaster, he has written and presented three television series, one of which won the Grierson Award for Best Documentary Series at BAFTA. He has also won the Thomas Cook Travel Book Award, the Sunday Times Young British Writer of the Year Award, the Foreign Correspondent of the Year at the FPA Media Awards, and been awarded five honorary doctorates. He is a fellow of the Royal Society of Literature, the Royal Asiatic Society and the Royal Society of Edinburgh, and has held visiting fellowships at Princeton and Brown. He writes regularly for the New York Review of Books, the New Yorker and the Guardian. In 2018 he was presented with the prestigious President’s Medal by the British Academy for his outstanding literary achievement, and for co-founding the Jaipur Literature Festival. William lives with his wife and three children on a farm outside Delhi.
Ziya Us Salam is a veteran journalist and widely published author. His latest book Being Muslim in Hindu India is a bestseller. His upcoming book is The Lion of Naushera. Based in New Delhi, he works with The Hindu as an Associate Editor.
