Moderators 2020

Abeer Kapoor

Abeer Kapoor, is a journalist, board game designer and author. He is the creator of India’s first election-based board game called ‘The Poll’, which has been featured in CNN, vice, the Diplomat and several other national and international publications. He is the author of 'The Most Notorious Jailbreakers' (Rupa, 2020), which has just been acquired by T-series for digital rights. His articles have appeared in Hardnews, the Wire, Scroll, Quartz and others. He is currently, building a new suite of games on 'digital citizenship' and writing a graphic novel.

Anushree Kaushal

Anushree Kaushal is an editor. She previously worked at Penguin Random House India commissioning a range of fiction and non-fiction books, specializing in politics, international relations, and literary and genre fiction. She likes murder mysteries, a well-delivered joke, and all things Russia.

Ashutosh Paturkar

Ashutosh Paturkar Worked in Pharmaceutical Industry for 20 years. Currently working as Prof. & Dean Academics at DAIMSR. Corporate Trainer, Academician, Author of the book "5 Elements of Organizational Excellence".

Bhuvan Gupta

Bhuvan Gupta is a journalist with The Times of India. A management professional who gave in to his ever-enduring desire to pursue journalism, Bhuvan now writes and edits news stories for TOI’s Nagpur edition.

Kartik Borikar

Kartik is an entrepreneur with over 22 years of experience. His work focuses on Research, Development and Innovation in Vehicle Cleaning Systems, Cleaning Chemicals, Electronics, IOT and AI.

His Specialization includes Systems Development, International Business Development, Crisis Management, Operations Management, Customer Relationship Management (CRM), and Sales Management.

Naveen Choudhary

Naveen Choudhary is an author and satirist. His political thriller Janta Store is soon going to be adapted as web-series. He works as Associate Marketing Director at Oxford University Press and leads Social science discipline marketing globally.

Pushpinder Syal

Pushpinder Syal, PhD from Lancaster University U.K., is Professor and Chairperson (Retd), Department of English and Cultural Studies, Panjab University Chandigarh where she has been teaching since 1978.

She was also Director at the Lucknow Campus of the English and Foreign Language University in 2010-11. She has worked and guided extensive research in the field of stylistics, language teaching and literature and has several publications in these areas, chiefly Structure and Style in Commonwealth Literature (Vikas, 1994), An Introduction to Linguistics,Grammar and Semantics,(Prentice Hall, 1997) and was guest editor of Language and Language Teaching-13, and contributor to journals of language and linguistics. She is a recipient of Commonwealth Academic Staff Scholarship, Charles Wallace Fellowship and Australia India Council Award, and presented papers in national and international conferences. In literature, she has taught and researched in African, Australian and Indian writing. She has been associated with several projects with the British Council, CBSC, NCERT, IGNOU etc. being deeply involved in teacher education and evaluation, and her current interests have expanded to translation, Sikh studies and literature in Punjabi. She lives in Chandigarh and does organic farming and voluntary service for animals.

Samantak Bhadra

Samantak Bhadra's poems and reviews have been published in magazines and anthologies like Rain Taxi, The Missing Slate, Solstice Initiative, Recours au Poème, 40 Under 40, Knot Magazine and Taj Mahal Review among others. He has been conducting poetry readings and workshops in Bangalore, Pune and Mumbai since 2014. He is a TEDx speaker and a Millennium Fellow and has worked in sales, marketing and CSR roles with Titan Company before joining Manjul Publishing House as the head of marketing and promotions. Currently, he runs his own branding, marketing and art consulting company called the Sound through which he helps authors and publishers market their books better.

Shefali Vaidya

Shefali Vaidya is an award-winning multi-lingual author, newspaper columnist, motivational speaker and textile enthusiast. She writes and speaks regularly on art and craft, handlooms weaving, temple architecture as well as on social and political issues. She is working closely with several think-tanks and trusts working to preserve Indic arts, crafts culture and thought. She has successfully curated and moderated conferences on Indian textiles and temple architecture for Indic Academy. Academically, she holds a Master’s degree in Mass Communications, an advanced post-graduate diploma in Spanish and a post-graduate diploma in Indology. Shefali is an Ananta Leadership Fellow. Her work has appeared in many renowned publications including Swarajya, The Outlook Traveler, Indian Express, The New Indian Express, and Hindustan Times.

Vinay Nalwa

Vinay Nalwa is an author and columnist. She has a Masters's degree in Social Work and a PhD in Sociology. She has worked extensively on gender-specific mental health issues also. She has written extensively on various socio-political issues on major media platforms. She has co-authored the book 'Ramjanmabhoomi: Truth, Evidence, Faith'. Her forthcoming book is on the inquisition and liberation of Goa. She is a senior fellow with Delhi based think tank Vichar Vinimay Kendra

Madhavi Naidu

She's an artist, creates abstracts on canvas and has sold more than 300 art works.  Having studied English literature, she's a romantic and loves Shelley, Keats and Wordsworth; and often enjoys Shakespeare's creations. Madhavi has been the award winning editor of the Rotary Club magazine "Golden Orange"

Radhika Dhawad

An MBA from Pune University, Radhika Dhawad is a senior journalist who has been covering politics of Maharashtra and India at large for more than six years. Radhika Dhawad, who’s associated with Nation Next - News Hub For New India - as its Deputy Editor, has been deconstructing Indian polity for the nation’s young audience through her indulgent political reportage and interactive sessions with senior politicians across the country.

Sanjana Shah

Sanjana Shah comes from an Indian Art and Real Estate background. She is the Creative Director in her family business, Tao Art Gallery, which is an established cultural hub of Indian Modern and Contemporary Art in Mumbai. As part of this role she curates exhibitions, writes concept notes, ideates with and explores tie-ups with new artists and manages the gallery’s brand image and sales both in India and internationally. Alongside the gallery she does independent art consulting and curating for individual homes in collaboration with interior designers and her family’s real-estate company Group Satellite in Mumbai. Alongside her work, she is also a passionate writer with her own Reflections and Art blog titled ‘The Little Brown Eyes’: https://thelittlebrowneyes.com

Sangeeta Varma

A Company Secretary by profession, Sangeeta Varma was an adjunct lecturer in Institute for Chartered Financial Analysts of India (ICFAI) for its MBA course. She had authored for ICFAI two editions of its curriculum text book on Economic Legislation covering Company Law, few Gener al Laws and Direct and Indirect Taxation. Sangeeta also worked as a project manager with the end-to-end responsibility of managing a hospital project. In her free time, Sangeeta lends her support for an environmental causes and is currently working at saving the beautiful but fast disappearing granite rocks of Hyderabad. She is the Joint Secretary of the Society to Save Rocks and is an active member of We. Log a trust working in the fields of rape and sexual abuse, police reforms and environment related issues.

Arva Ahmed

Arva Ahmed is the founder of Frying Pan Adventures, Dubai's first licensed food and culture tourism company. Along with her sister Farida, she is also co-host of UAE's first-ever dedicated food podcast, Deep Fried. She started her professional journey as a management consultant in New York. She always had the hunger to show people the authentic side of the city she had grown up in. She also started a food blog called ‘I Live in a Frying Pan’ in 2010. This further took her to new avenues of creating a niche for food tours that had never existed in the city and the concept became an inspiration behind the foundation of Frying Pan Adventures. Her company offers trails that are not solely about eating - but about using food as a lens for street-side discovery, community understanding, food history and even etymology.

Krutika Dhanwatey

Krutika Dhanwatey is a Businesswomen with a degree in Engineer and Masters in science in sustainable building technology from UK She is a Director of KKE group of companies which offers automatic vehicle cleaning machinery and chemicals and Channel partners for brands Greaves and Ampere for electric vehicles and Ledvance Osram for their lighting solutions. Krutika is passionate about the environment and animals and constantly working on Eco friendly techniques and technologies.

Mandira Nayar

Mandira Nayar is a Senior Special Correspondent at The Week. She writes on foreign policy, culture, books and history. In 2015, she was awarded the Charles Wallace scholarship.

Drishti Sharma

I'm an aspiring journalist, presently studying at Asian college of Journalism. I’ve done my graduation from Bengaluru and worked with various media houses like Tv9, CNN IBN, Times of India and ABP news. I’m currently breaking the news on my Instagram platform. Besides this I love to listen to peoples stories-- about their dreams, their struggles and how they overcome. I chose Journalism because I feel there are things that people need to know before forming an opinion. Unbiased reporting is one thing our country lacks right now. A pen can change a person and a country.

Besides this, I'm Rajma chawal fan and an Animal enthusiast. I want to change the world and put an end to starvation. I’m extremely grateful to be in amidst of such luminaries and literature titans.

Shabbir Shakir

Shabbir Shakir is currently the District Governor of Rotary District 3030, covering an area from Nagpur to Nashik.

He completed his BE(Hons) from BITS Pilani. Thereafter for few years he served some of the very well know organizations of Indian Corporate world like Eicher Motors Ltd, Bharat Petroleum Corporation Limited, Standard Batteries Ltd and Crompton Greaves Ltd before starting on his own.

He is into the business of Printing & Packaging and Distribution of Photography Equipment. One of the things he is passionate about is Blood Donation, which he himself has donated 138 times till date.

Monica Bhagwagar

Social entrepreneur n owner of designer paper company ...paperage !

Ashok Shrivastav

मूल रूप से वाराणसी के रहने वाले अशोक श्रीवास्तव की पढ़ाई-लिखाई दिल्ली में हुई है। उन्हें पत्रकारिता के क्षेत्र में काम करने का 28-29 साल का अनुभव है। दूरदर्शन में वह करीब 18 साल से अपनी जिम्मेदारी निभा रहे हैं।

समाचार4मीडिया के साथ बातचीत में अशोक श्रीवास्तव ने बताया कि शुरुआत में वह ‘नवभारत टाइम्स’, ‘जनसत्ता’, ‘पांचजन्य’ और ‘संडे मेल’ के साथ बतौर फ्रीलॉन्सर जुड़े रहे। इसके बाद वह वरिष्ठ पत्रकार नलिनी सिंह के ‘आंखों देखी’ कार्यक्रम के साथ जुड़ गए। इसके बाद उन्होंने ‘सूर्या टीवी’ होते हुए ‘दूरदर्शन’ का रुख किया और तब से यहां अपनी जिम्मेदारी निभा रहे हैं।

गौरतलब है कि अशोक श्रीवास्तव पिछले काफी समय से डीडी न्यूज़ से जुड़े हुए हैं और उनका शो ‘दो टूक’ काफी लोकप्रिय है। उन्होंने प्रधानमंत्री नरेंद्र मोदी पर ‘नरेंद्र मोदी सेंसर्ड’नामक किताब भी लिखी है।

Piorre Hart

Piorre Hart is the Founder and Director of Finesse Academy & Trainings, an institution offering life-transformative workshops, webinars & trainings for the students, professionals, organizations & institutions. Talking about her core interests, she is a surgeon by profession, a writer by heart, and a seeker in spirit. She is forever in flight on the wings of imagination, soaring into the virtual realms of words and verses. She thrives on books, on chai, on fictionalizing philosophy and philosophizing fiction. She has been writing since she was eight; dabbling in various forms of the craft. Her poems and short stories have found their place in various magazines and anthologies. Her novels “Where There’s A Will… ”, “Dial T for Terror” and “A Genre called Hope” have been a great success with many rave reviews.

Sunaina Kumar

Sunaina Kumar is an independent journalist based in Delhi. She writes on social justice and gender, among other topics. Her work has been published in the Guardian, BBC, Al Jazeera, Der Spiegel, and various publications. She is a fellow with the Robert Bosch Foundation, the European Journalism Centre, and the Dart Centre at Columbia University. Her work can be found at https://sunainakumar.contently.com/

Dr. Radhakrishnan Pillai

Dr. Radhakrishnan Pillai is a Ph.D. from the University of Mumbai, and has done extensive research on "Kautilya's Arthashastra" from Chinmaya International Foundation (CIF), Kerala under the guidance of Dr Gangadharan Nair (Dean of Adi Shankara Sanskrit University). He is also an MA in Sanskrit. On the popular side, Dr.Pillai is known for his internationally best-selling book Corporate Chanakya and other books in the Chanakya series.

With nearly 25 years of experience, Dr Pillai is a leadership speaker, trainer, and personal mentor, who trains leaders and aspirants from various fields including corporates, politics, academics and public services. He is a certified management consultant from the International Institute of Management Consultants. Dr Pillai is the Director at SPM Foundation and Founder Director of Atma Darshan Pvt Ltd (a Spiritual Tourism Company) & Chanakya Aanvikshiki Pvt Ltd (a Leadership Training & Mentoring Institute). He has been recently appointed as the Deputy Director of Chanakya International Institute of Leadership Studies (CIILS), as autonomous Institute based in the University of Mumbai, Kalina Campus.

He has written nearly 200 articles and papers for various magazines, newspapers and journals. He has given a Tedx talk on How to Become Richie Rich. He has also hosted a radio show "Ask Chanakya" on Moksha Channel of Worldspace satellite radio.

He is a visiting faculty in prestigious institutes in India and abroad including the IIT, IIM, Indian Institute of Science (IISc) among others. He has been a trainer and strategy consultant to over 500 organisations like Indian Army, Navy, Air force, Indian police, various NGOs, private, public sector and government organisations.

He has been awarded the prestigious Sardar Patel International award 2009 and Aavishkar Chanakya Innovation Research Award 2013 for his research and contribution in field of management & Industrial development. Recently, he was honoured with the LOKMAT National Education Leadership Award as the Best Professor in Philosophy. He is rated among the top 30 Indian management Thinkers globally by Thinkers50.com.

Dr Pillai is the best-selling author of 10 books. His first book 'Corporate Chanakya' has been on the "best-seller" list since its launch in 2010 and used as a text book in various Business schools in India and abroad. The book has the unique distinction of being made into an audio book, world's first management film on Chanakya's teachings - 'Chanakya speaks' and translated into 10 regional languages. His second book 'Chanakya's 7 Secrets of Leadership' along with Mr. D. Sivanandhan (ex-DGPMaharashtra Police) has created waves in corporate world since its release. His third best seller book 'Chanakya in You' got him various awards, including the India's most popular "Crossword Raymond book of the year award", 2016. His fourth book 'Katha Chanakya' was the first book to be launched internationally in New York, USA in November 2016. The fifth and sixth books 'Chanakya in Daily Life' & 'Aanvikshiki - Inside Chanakya's Mind' has been appreciated all around in media and has been on the focus list of almost all the publishing retailers. His seventh book Chatur Chanakya is his first children's book and is making waves across India already. His eighth book Thus Spoke Chanakya is freshly out on the market but has made its way on the bestseller list already. His ninth ook, ‘Chanakya and the Art of getting Rich’ has gained popularity amongst the business community. His tenth book, ‘How to Write a Book and Make it a Bestseller’ is his only non-Chanakya book and talks about how he consistently made all his books bestsellers.