Moderators 2022

Piorre Hart

Piorre Hart

A surgeon by profession, a writer by heart, and a seeker in spirit, Piorre Hart is forever in flight on the wings of imagination, on the journey of self-discovery, riding the waves of change. She thrives on books, on chai, on philosophizing the universe and universalising philosophy. She has been writing since she was eight; dabbling in various forms of the craft, the words and the verses. 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 received many rave reviews.

Shakti Sharma

Shakti Sharma

Dr. Shakti Sharma is a doctorate in Food and Nutrition and has qualified UGC-NET. She received her Master’s degree with gold medal in Food and Nutrition from Rani Durgavati University, Jabalpur. She subsequently completed her internship from AIIMS, New Delhi and Choithram Hospital, Indore.

Dr. Shakti Sharma is an academician and a holistic clinical nutritionist specializing in weight management and sports nutrition for young athletes. She holds a teaching experience for over 12 years in reputed undergraduate and post graduate institutes of Nagpur.

She is a certified Diabetic educator and is successfully running a diet clinic ‘Nutrition and You’ since more than 5 years. She is an impressive public speaker on Health and Wellness and regularly conducts awareness sessions for corporate, various Government organizations and NGOs .

She regularly contributes in print and digital media related to diet, health and wellness. Her passion turned into profession and has profoundly contributed to the book for upcoming Home scientists, Nutritionists and Food scientists.

Sangeeta Varma

Sangeeta Varma

A Company Secretary by profession, Ms.Sangeeta Varma was an adjunct lecturer in Institute for Chartered Financial Analysts of India (ICFAI) for its CFA cum MBA course. She had authored for ICFAI two editions of its curriculum text book on Economic Legislation covering Company Law, few General Laws and Direct and Indirect Taxation. She also worked as a project manager with the end-to-end responsibility of managing a hospital project. In her free time, she lends her support for 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 a trust working in the fields of rape and sexual abuse, police reforms and environment related issues. She also has been actively involved with the offline sessions of Hyderabad Literary Festival until the lockdown hit the country.

Madhavi Naidu

Madhavi Naidu

She is a well known artist from Nagpur and has worked with various mediums, using material as diverse as canvas and ceramic and wood. As of today has sold more than 300 artworks. She is a well educated woman with a Masters in English Literature and a Diploma in Marketing from Bhavan’s Business School.

As part of various organisations and literature fests she has anchored a number of events, interviewed eminent personalities, and keeps her passion for reading by being part of various book groups.

Mother of two talented daughters, she has held her own amidst challenges she faced in her life, supporting her husband Vijay along the way. She is fond of travel and is a movie addict, watches crime thrillers, and is passionate about culinary art. All packed in one and has this "18 till I die" attitude. She is well read about Indian culture and history and tries to keep pace with technology, although her firebrand personality is amply exhibited in her work.

When asked about her strong qualities, she smiles and says ‘take each person on merit' and 'trust each person till they lose you’. Full of energy and vigour, she will go till any length to fulfil her commitment, be it to family or client or a friend.

Geeta Rao

Geeta Rao

Textile Designer, mother of two. A Humanist and a believer in spiritualism at the same time. Keen observer and Life skill speaker. Lives Life with Passion and compassion.

Sarita Kaushik

Sarita Kaushik

Sarita Kaushik is Deputy Executive Editor of ABP Majha, the first woman to lead a regional channel. In her career spanning over 25 years, she has several major national scoops and reportage to her credit, and brings to the table her versatility - having worked in print television and new media, spanning the languages of English, Marathi and Hindi. Widely experienced in print, she has previously worked with the Hindustan Times, the Times of India, the Hitavada and the Indian Express. She has been hailed for her political coverage and her coverage of the Naxal movement in Central India. Stories including those of BODO kidnappings in the North East, the Vidarbha agrarian crisis and other human interest stories that have helped better lives have earned her recognition through several prestigious awards. She is a commerce and law graduate, with a Masters in mass communication. She has also co-edited Unmasking India, a best-seller book by Union Minister Nitin Gadkari, available in three languages - English, Hindi and Marathi. She has also independently authored better than the Dream - à never-before take on an infrastructure project.

Biji George

Biji George

BIJI GEORGE is a passionate and committed senior educator with excellent public speaking and communication skills. Her love for teaching and learning has evolved over three decades of experience at Modern School, Nagpur. She wears many hats. She is a teaching professional, Co-Scholastic Coordinator, Soft Skills Trainer and a Resource Person for In-House Teachers’ Training sessions on various topics of CBSE.

Her passion for compering events is evident in being the regular ‘Master of Ceremonies’ of ‘TRAFFIC POLICE’, Nagpur for their Annual Day celebrations of the Road Safety Patrol (RSP) Department and the Beauty Pageants ‘Ms. Maharashtra’ and ‘Ms. Nation’.

She has been the Moderator for the Great Masters Series (Pt. Nikhil Banerjee), SPIC MACAY live, British Council Collaborative Activity and ‘Digital Pedagogies and it’s relevance on Constructivism today’ by NAVNEET TOPTECH, Mumbai.

She was bestowed with the PEACE AWARD from PEACE FOUNDATION, CARE Hospital, Nagpur for her ‘Promotion of Ethics and Continuing Education’ (2018).

For her relentless and selfless service to educate students, she received the ‘TEACHERS’ DAY AWARD’ FROM IIHM,PUNE (2020).

She was also the finalist of the IPN Inspired Life Skills Enhancer of the year Award in 2021.

Vishal Jain

Vishal Jain

Centre Director

GEEBEE Education

Aged 43 Years

Is a Management Graduate

He is a Certified Trainer for exams like IELTS by British Council and for TOEFL by ETS.

Having experience of sending students to various countries, he specialises in Researching about various Universities and the courses offered by them across the globe.

Over 17 years he has counselled hundreds of students and helped them achieve their goals by studying abroad.

Anirban Bhattacharyya

Anirban Bhattacharyya

Anirban Bhattacharyya wears many hats - an author, a poet, a standup comedian, a movie actor, a television and media professional, mainstream content creator, motivational speaker and a standup comedian.

He is the author of the No.1 true crime bestseller The Deadly Dozen: India's Most Notorious Serial Killers published by Penguin India. His debut collection of poetry titled Mumblings & Musings has just been published by Petals Publishers, and has received rave reviews. He has three books lined up for release in 2022.

He is the Co-Creator, Producer and Writer of one of India's most loved true crime shows on Television - Savdhaan India. His day job is as a television content producer having produced hit TV shows on Indian television channels like Crime Patrol, Fear Files and Ishq Kills.

Anirban spent his childhood at Dr Graham’s Homes, a boarding school in Kalimpong

Anirban is an alumnus of St. Xavier's College, Kolkata where he graduated in English Literature.

He then went on to do his Masters in Mass Communication from MCRC, Jamia, New Delhi.

He has been the Content Head at Channel [v] India,and Head of Brand Solutions and Non-Fiction at The Walt Disney Company (India).

He is an actor having acted in Sui Dhaaga and Mission Mangal. He is also a standup comedian when he is not deep diving into crime for his television shows or his books.

Drishti Sharma

Drishti Sharma

Drishti is a special correspondent with Nagpur Today and is a TEDX speaker. She has her own Instagram news page with over 30,000 followers where she believes to deliver news through 15-second stories and short informative videos. Her main aim is to keep the youth updated with certain issues which need to be addressed. More than being in the newsroom, Drishti can often be found on the ground, sitting with people, listening to their stories and concerns. Besides this, she is a wildlife enthusiast, coffee, and beer guzzler.

Koutilya Chhajed

Koutilya Chhajed

Psychologist, Life Coach and Corporate Trainer, Founder of Divibe Healing a Counselling and Healing centre since 2010, has been involved in Training, Counselling and Consulting for more than 15 years.

Koutilya is associated with many Companies and Educational institutions for Counselling and Training, He travels widely and his experience and association with people from various domains help him to effectively manage them and their behaviour.

He has a never-ending approach towards innovation; He is a Man of Passion and Purpose.

Dr. Pramod Munghate

Dr. Pramod Munghate

Dr. Pramod Munghate is known as a writer and social movement activist in Maharashtra.

Dr. Pramod Munghate is the Head of Marathi Department at Rashtrasant Tukdoji Maharaj Nagpur University. He has written and edited 12 books. His book '1857 : truth and ficton' won the Maharashtra Governments Award for Best writing in 1994. But he returned it to the government in 2015 on the issue of freedom of expression.

Dr.Pramod Munghate's books are mostly on the reviews of Marathi novels, contemporary literature and tribal Marathi literature. He was invited as a speaker on tribal literature in the first World Marathi Literary Conference held in America. Along with this, his articles on literature and social issues are published continuously in many Marathi periodicals.

Munghate is working as a member of the many Literary Institutions, government and non government. He is also a member of Mahatma Phule Biography Publication Committee of Government of Maharashtra. He has been a member of Textbook Board as well as Language Advisory Committee for many years. Currently, he is a member of the Marathi Advisory Committee of the Sahitya Akademi.

Under his guidance so far 18 students have completed Ph. D. has been received. He has so far completed three major projects with the financial support of the University Grants Commission and his subjects were research on theatrical traditions of East Vidarbha.

Along with literary criticism, Dr. Munghate is active in progressive social movements in Maharashtra. Recently, after the murders of Dabholkar-Pansare-Kalburgi and Gauri Lankesh, among the prominent activists of the Dakshinayan movement in Maharashtra, which came forward in India on the initiative of wellknown writer Dr.Ganesh Devi.

Barkha Mathur

Barkha Mathur

Barkha Mathur is a senior journalist, an author and blogger who has been reporting and writing about issues and events in Central India. Recently she has co-authored a book being the Change in the footsteps of the Mahatma, published by Harper Collins India. She blogs regularly on a variety of subjects that touch different aspects of life.

Barkha Bisht Sengupta

Barkha Bisht Sengupta

Barkha Bisht Sengupta is an Indian Television actress and writer, known for RamLeela (2013), Rajneeti (2010) and Aahat (1995).She works in Hindi TV serials and Bengali, Hindi Movies. Barkha Bisht made her first TV appearance in Kitni Mast Hai Zindagi as Udita. She made her screen debut in Hindi Film Raajneeti (2010) and Bengali film debut in Dui Prithibi (2010). Barkha Bisht is married to actor Indraneil Sengupta in 2007

Dipankar Mukherjee

Dipankar Mukherjee

Dipankar Mukherjee is the publisher and director of Readomania Publishing, an independent publishing house based in Delhi. Under his leadership, the house has produced over 120 books in just about 6 years, with some critically acclaimed and award-winning titles as well. He teaches creative writing at many institutes and runs the popular Young Author Program. He is an engineer from Nagpur University, holds an MBA degree from IIT Madras and has been in the corporate world for 9 years, before becoming an entrepreneur. He also manages business interests in hospitality and manufacturing.

Dr. G S Khwaja

Dr. G S Khwaja

Dr. G S Khwaja is Former Director Archaeological Survey of India, Nagpur. His area of specialization is epigraphy, numismatics, architecture & calligraphy. He has authored many books on art, archaeology, history and litrature appreciation. He has organised exhibitions of calligraphy in various cities of India and abroad. His exhibition and live demonstration of calligraphy at Janadariya Fair at Riyadh, Saudi Arabia made him popular in international circles of art. He is doing nowadays documentation of specimen of calligraphy at Rampur Raza Library U.P.

Dr. Harshali Singh

Dr. Harshali Singh

Dr. Harshali Singh is a New Delhi based Member Judge of the District Consumer Dispute Redressal Commission, an Author, a Poet, an academician, a teacher trainer, an Occupational Therapist, an avid reader and a passionate Painter.

She has written in several literary genres ranging from poetry to fiction, columns to essays and is also the contributing author in several anthologies.

Her Novels ‘A Window to her Dreams’, ‘The Anatomy of Choice’ and the new ‘A Paradox of Dreams’ form part of nine books series comprising the ‘Haveli Series’. She is currently working on her 4rth book.

She has won the prestigious ‘Write India- Season 2’, a short story Contest organized by ‘The Times of India’ Group and also the ‘Global Progressive Woman Award’ at the International Leadership Summit organized by Aesthetics International.

She has also chaired discussions with eminent personalities in their chosen fields of World Peace, Meditation, Infertility and Social Causes and stalwarts in the field of Writing.

Sanjeev Dubey

Sanjeev Dubey

A versatile professional with 23+ years of experience in Product Development, Product Integration, Strategic Planning, Technical & Cloud Architecture, Data Centre Operations, Financial Asset Management, Customer Engagement, and Team Management targeting challenges in various organizations of high repute. Ability to communicate solution strategy & product offerings, analyze & translate complex business problems, design & implement innovative solutions. Skilled in resolving complex multi-disciplinary business problems, by applying design-thinking translating into customer centric deliverables.

Swati Naidu

Swati Naidu

Swati Naidu is from Nagpur, In her Words "the eldest daughter to doctors, mother of 2 wonderful children and mother to a doctor turned pastor. I'm creative and like to work with my hands. I'm happiest when I'm creating and being around nature

Vikash Khurana

Vikash Khurana

Vikash has been a theatre practitioner for almost 40 years. He trained under such eminent theatre persons as Satyadev Dubey, Amrish Puri, Akash Khurana and Sunil Shanbag before he set up Stagecraft Theatre in Nagpur in 20O3.

He has been credited with bringing about a paradigm shift in the audience's attitude towards theatre, providing a platform and reviving 'theatre-going' in the cultural ethos of Nagpur.

Vikash has directed more than 100 plays (including 7 by Shakespeare, viz. Romeo & Juliet, The Merchant of Venice, Hamlet, Macbeth, Twelfth Night, Much Ado About Nothing & A Midsummer Night's Dream), and acted in over 70 of them.

He has also attended workshops conducted by the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art (RADA) and the Royal Shakespeare Company (RSC) and regularly mentors and trains theatre enthusiasts and students in acting and speaking, including preparing them for the Trinity Speech and Drama examinations.

He is the recipient of several awards including the Smita Smruti Puruskar (Smita Patil Award) and the Rotary Award for Excellence in Theatre.

Kartik Borikar

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.

Tushar Mulay

Tushar Mulay

Mr. Tushar Mulay is an Associate Trainer at Dale Carnegie India.Sir has twenty eight years’ experience in the field of training and development for corporates and academics dealing with Leaders, Managers, Faculty Members, Students & CBSE Teachers. Sir is Co-authoring a book on Employability Skills for promising professionals .He constantly works for the betterment of students and professionals ,he keeps writing articles on Motivation & Skill Development Training for students. Sir is an ardent follower of Indian history and loves to write Hindi poems and satires. He did several moderations at Teachers Debate competitions,panel discussions with Industry experts.

Monica Bhagwagar

Monica Bhagwagar

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

Founder Member of we7 care Foundation

NGO

Ehsaan member of Prabha Khaitan foundation

Suhail Mathur

Suhail Mathur

Suhail Mathur is an award winning and bestselling author of the historical-mythological fiction, THE BHAIRAV PUTRAS and the mythological-fantasy, THE HUNT FOR RAMA’S BOW, a TedX speaker, and is one of the country’s premier literary agents via his agency, THE BOOK BAKERS, through which he has successfully sold more than 900 books.

An alumnus of Delhi Public School, NOIDA and National Law University, Delhi, Suhail, a lit fest regular and the festival director of the largest & longest online Literature Festival; The Book Bakers Online Literature Festival, has also worked as an English cricket commentator for Star Sports & Airtel’s mobile app.

His name has also been listed as one of the ‘Top 51 Indian Writers To Follow’ by EBooks India and called ‘India’s JK Rowling’ by Enewsroom.com and ‘India’s Rick Riordan’ by ED Times.

He has sold several Book To Screen deals, worked with several actors, cricketers and bestselling authors apart from having written and worked on web series, TV shows and animated series. He is currently working in a leading General Entertainment Channel where he looks into new show development and the acquisition of international animation shows & movies, and Indian live action content.

Sandeep Agrawal

Sandeep Agrawal

Sandeep Agrawal cleared his Chartered Accountancy in the year 1984, and is engaged in business since then. He is a singer and writer, and regularly contributes articles and poems to The Hitavada and other publications. He practices Yoga regularly, and is also a certified Acupressure Therapist, providing his services on an honorary basis to many patients at the PKAT Acupressure center. He plays an active part in the I-Clean Nagpur group which conducts regular cleaning and beautification activities in our city, and has completed more than 200 such spots.

He is an alumnus of The Scindia School, Gwalior and plays an active role in its alumni body, having served as its National Secretary for four years. His other hobbies include reading, nature photography, and gardening.

Manjula Narayan

Manjula Narayan

Manjula Narayan is Books Editor, Hindustan Times. She hosts Books & Authors, a weekly podcast.

Shabbir Shakir

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.

Niharika Chugh Vali

Niharika Chugh Vali

Niharika Chugh Vali is the Founder of JUMP, a sensory soft play space aimed at creative development in early childhood. Now successfully in its fifth year, JUMP was founded to address the glaring gap in thoughtfully designed children’s infrastructure and to prioritise Play and imagination as learning tools.

Niharika is a freelance content writer and has formerly also worked in the design and television broadcast journalism spaces.

Dr. Ruchi R. Chaudhary

Dr. Ruchi R. Chaudhary

Trainer Personality Development & Image Consultant Founder of “Getting You Ready”

Expertize:- Conducting Interactive lectures, Student Oriented and activity based

Shalaka Kulkarni

Shalaka Kulkarni

India’s award-winning flash fiction author Shalaka Kulkarni is all set to conduct a creative writing workshop called ‘Widening Your Perspective’ at the 4th Edition of Orange City Literature Festival, 2022. This workshop caters to anyone and everyone who wants to start their creative writing journey.

Shalaka has been writing since the age of 8. She will talk about how one can widen their perspective and get started with creative writing.

A whirlwind of crazy chaos, a dialogue in the digital world, and the first ray of the sun - ‘Shalaka’ is an Indian award-winning flash fiction author, TEDx speaker and global brand marketer.

Shalaka’s book Orenda is a collection of 52 stories based in modern India. It won “Book of the year - Reader’s Choice” at Kavishala Book Awards 2021 and was listed as #1 on Kindle under the short stories. She was invited as a speaker at Jaipur Literature Festival, Bangalore Lit fest, Pune International Lit Fest, Orange City Lit Fest and others.

Orenda has received an endorsement from a Sahitya Akademi award-winning author, Namita Gokhale and the foreword is written by critically acclaimed filmmaker, Manish Mundra.

She has been honoured with Women Disruptors 2021 and Corporate Comms & PR 30 under 30 (2022) and currently heads the Employer Brand and Communications for Angel One.