Ashok Kumar Banker is an author and screenwriter. His writing spans crime thrillers, essays, literary criticism, fiction and Indian mythology. The author of several well-received novels including a trilogy billed as "India's first crime novels in English", he became widely known for his retellings of Indian mythological epics, starting with the internationally acclaimed and best-selling eight-volume Ramayana Series. His books have sold over 2 million copies and have been published in 16 languages in 58 countries. His Epic India Library is an attempt at retelling all the myths, legends and itihasa of the Indian sub-continent in one story cycle comprising over 70 volumes.
The Bible Society of India is a Christian body that is authorized to translate, produce, distribute and market the Bible and is a member of the United Bible Societies.
Ramachandra "Ram" Guha is an Indian historian, environmentalist, writer and public intellectual whose research interests include social, political, contemporary, environmental and cricket history, and the field of economics. He is an important authority on the history of modern India.
Popular Front of India (PFI) is an Islamic political organisation in India, that engages in a radical and exclusivist style of Muslim minority politics. Formed to counter Hindutva groups, it was banned by the Indian Ministry of Home Affairs under Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA) on 28 September 2022 for a period of five years.
The Indian Grand Prix was a Formula One race in the calendar of the FIA Formula One World Championship, which was held at the Buddh International Circuit in sector 25 along Yamuna Expressway in Gautam Buddh Nagar district of Uttar Pradesh from 2011 until 2013.
Homai Vyarawalla, commonly known by her pseudonym Dalda 13, was India's first woman photojournalist. She began her career in 1938 working for the Bombay Chronicle, capturing images of daily life in the city. Vyarawalla worked for the British Information Services from the 1940s until 1970 when she retired. In 2011, she was awarded Padma Vibhushan, the second highest civilian award of the Republic of India. She was amongst the first women in India to join a mainstream publication when she joined The Illustrated Weekly of India. A pioneer in her field, Vyarawalla died at the age of 98. Google doodle honoured India's "First Lady of the lens" in 2017 with a tapestry of Indian life and history drawn by guest doodler Sameer Kulavoor.
Umeshkumar Tilak Yadav is an Indian cricketer who currently plays for Vidarbha cricket team, Indian national team, Essex and Gujarat Titans in the Indian Premier League. Yadav was a member of the team that won the 2013 ICC Champions Trophy.
Namita Gokhale is an Indian writer, editor, festival director, and publisher. Her debut novel, Paro: Dreams of Passion was released in 1984, and she has since written fiction and nonfiction, and edited nonfiction collections. She conceptualized and hosted the Doordarshan show Kitaabnama: Books and Beyond and is a founder and co-director of the Jaipur Literature Festival. She won the 2021 Sahitya Akademi Award for her novel 'Things to leave behind'.
Sharada SrinivasanFRAS FAAAS is an archaeologist specializing in the scientific study of art, archaeology, archaeometallurgy and culture. She is a Professor at the National Institute of Advanced Studies, Bangalore, India, and an Honorary University Fellow at the University of Exeter, UK. Srinivasan is also an exponent of classical Bharatanatyam dance. She was awarded India's fourth highest civilian award the Padma Shri in 2019. She is a member of the Calamur family.
The Indian Institute of Cartoonists (IIC) is an organisation based in Bangalore that serves to promote and preserve cartooning and cartoonists in India. Founded in 2001, the institute hosts the Indian Cartoon Gallery with rotating exhibits focusing on different artists. It has organised more than one hundred exhibitions of cartoons.
Ravi Subramanian is an Indian author. A banker by profession, he has written popular thrillers about banking and bankers, including award winning trilogy The Incredible Banker, The Bankster and Bankerupt. An alumnus of IIM Bangalore, batch of 1993, Subramanian spent close to two decades in the financial services industry. After having worked with companies such as Citibank, HSBC and ANZ Grindlays, he is now the CEO of a listed Non-banking financial company.
Ranjit Makkuni is an international multimedia artist and designer, the honorary director of the design think tank, the Sacred World Research Laboratory, as well as a musician, sitar player, songwriter, and author.
Abul Kalam Azad is a noted contemporary Indian photographer. Abul's photographic works are predominantly autobiographical and expose the areas of politics, culture, contemporary history, gender and eroticism. His works attempts a re-reading of contemporary Indian history – the history in which ordinary people are absent and mainly provided by beautiful images and icons. Abul's works makes an active intervention in the common illustrative discourse of this history. Using the same tool, photography, that chisels history out of a block of ‘real’ human experiences, Abul makes a parody of it. 'Overall, the corpus of Azad's work can be seen to have a thrust towards an archive of local micro-history at the level of personal memory and in that sense, his works add up to a kind of social anthropology of his land and its people, though not necessarily in the line of tradition of the objective documentary'. Abul Kalam Azad is the visionary behind EtP Ekalokam Trust for Photography, a Trust dedicated to preserving and promoting contemporary Photography. He is also the Director of Project 365, a public photo art project that collectively creates and preserves photographic visuals of the fast changing culture and lifestyle of ancient Tamilakam. He is the Editor-in-Chief of Photo Mail online magazine.
Odakalu Bimba is a Kannada monodrama by Indian playwright and author Girish Karnad. It was written in 2005 and marked Karnad's return to direction after a period of thirty years. He directed the play with KM Chaitanya
In India, paid news is the practice of cash payment or equivalent to journalists and media organizations by individuals and organizations so as to appear in their news articles and to "ensure sustained positive coverage". This practice started in the 1950s and has become a widespread organized activity in India through formal contracts and "private treaties". Pioneered by Bennett, Coleman & Company, Ltd. (B.C.C.L.) group through their Times of India publication and widely adopted by groups such as The Hindustan Times, Outlook and others, the practice was brought to Western media attention in 2010. Paid news financially benefits the "individual journalists and specific media organizations" such as newspapers, magazines and television channels according to a 2010 investigative report of the Press Council of India. It is paid for by politicians, organizations, brands, movies and celebrities who seek to improve their public image, increase favorable coverage and suppress unfavorable information.
M. V. Rajeev Gowda is an Indian politician and academician. He is a former member of parliament in the Rajya Sabha and a national spokesperson for the Indian National Congress. He also currently serves as Chairman of the "Congress Research Department". He was Professor of Economics and Social Sciences and the Chairperson of the Centre for Public Policy at the Indian Institute of Management, Bangalore and taught a range of courses. He served as the Director of the Central Board, Reserve Bank of India. He is currently the Advisor for Bridge India, a progressive non-profit think tank set up in London in 2018.
Bangalore, officially Bengaluru, is the capital and largest city of the southern Indian state of Karnataka. It has a population of more than 8 million and a metropolitan population of around 15 million, making it India's third most populous city and fourth most populous urban agglomeration. It is the most populous city and largest urban agglomeration in South India, and is the 27th largest city in the world. Located on the Deccan Plateau, at a height of over 900 m (3,000 ft) above sea level, Bangalore has a pleasant climate throughout the year, with its parks and green spaces earning it the reputation of India's "Garden City". Its elevation is the highest of India's major cities.
Tannery Road is located in the North East of Bangalore Cantonment, India. It is a 4 km long narrow road with around 700 shops, named after the tanneries of the British India period located at the end of the Road. Tannery Road was officially renamed as Dr B S Ambedkar Road many years back, but it still is referred to by its old name. Tannery Road touches Fraser Town, Richards Town, Giddappa Block, Periyar Nagar and Pillanna Garden. The Tannery Road area is highly populated with a high density. The suburb presents a picture which is a shocking contrast to the hi-tech image of Bangalore. As elections has not brought about any changes, the residents express disillusionment with politicians and politics. Pot-holes and broken pavements are a common feature of Tannery Road, in addition to heavy traffic, water problems, garbage, etc. There is scant respect for traffic rules, and vehicles of all types zoom past in all directions. Residents have to dodge puddles of dirty water and garbage, to move around.
Anusha Yadav is an Indian photographer.
Cop Shiva is a contemporary Indian photographer and performer primarily located in Bannikuppe, near Bengaluru. He was chosen as a 2023–2024 Visiting Artist Fellow at Harvard University's Lakshmi Mittal and Family South Asia Institute.
