The South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) is the regional intergovernmental organization and geopolitical union of states in South Asia. Its member states are Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka. SAARC comprises 3% of the world's land area, 21% of the world's population and 5.21% of the global economy, as of 2021.
Padma Shri, also spelled Padma Shree, is the fourth-highest civilian award of the Republic of India, after the Bharat Ratna, the Padma Vibhushan and the Padma Bhushan. Instituted on 2 January 1954, the award is conferred in recognition of "distinguished contribution in various spheres of activity including the arts, education, industry, literature, science, acting, medicine, social service and public affairs". It is awarded by the Government of India every year on India's Republic Day.
The Jnanpith Award is the oldest and the highest Indian literary award presented annually by the Bharatiya Jnanpith to an author for their "outstanding contribution towards literature". Instituted in 1961, the award is bestowed only on Indian writers writing in Indian languages included in the Eighth Schedule to the Constitution of India and English, with no posthumous conferral.
Biratnagar is a metropolitan city in Nepal, which serves as the capital of Koshi Province. With a population of 242,548 as per the 2011 census, it is the largest city in the province and also the headquarters of Morang district. As per the preliminary report of 2021 Nepal census, Biratnagar has an estimated city population of 244,750. It is the administrative center of the Greater Birat Development Area which incorporates the cities of Biratnagar-Itahari-Gothgau-Biratchowk-Dharan primarily located on the Koshi Highway in Eastern Nepal, with an estimated total urban agglomerated population of 804,300 people living in 159,332 households. Biratnagar is located 399 km (248 mi) east of the capital, Kathmandu, and 6 km (3.7 mi) north of the bordering town of Jogbani in the Indian state of Bihar.
Mahasweta Devi was an Indian writer in Bengali and an activist. Her notable literary works include Hajar Churashir Maa, Rudali, and Aranyer Adhikar. She was a leftist who worked for the rights and empowerment of the tribal people of West Bengal, Bihar, Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh states of India. She was honoured with various literary awards such as the Sahitya Akademi Award, Jnanpith Award and Ramon Magsaysay Award along with India's civilian awards Padma Shri and Padma Vibhushan.
Jayanta Mahapatra was an Indian poet. He is the first Indian poet to win a Sahitya Akademi award for English poetry. He was the author of poems such as "Indian Summer" and "Hunger", which are regarded as classics in modern Indian English literature. He was awarded a Padma Shri, the fourth highest civilian honour in India in 2009, but he returned the award in 2015 to protest against rising intolerance in India.
Pratibha Ray is an Indian academic and writer of Odia-language novels and stories. For her contribution to the Indian literature, Ray received the Jnanpith Award in 2011. She was awarded the Padma Bhushan in 2022.
Indian English poetry is the oldest form of Indian English literature. Henry Louis Vivian Derozio is considered the first poet in the lineage of Indian English poetry followed by Rabindranath Tagore, Sri Aurobindo, Sarojini Naidu, Michael Madhusudan Dutt, and Toru Dutt, among others.
Sitakant Mahapatra is an Indian poet and literary critic in Odia as well as English. He served in the Indian Administrative Service (IAS) from 1961 until he retired in 1995, and has held ex officio posts such as the Chairman of National Book Trust, New Delhi since then.
The Odia cinema, colloquially known as Ollywood, is the Odia language Indian film industry, based in Bhubaneshwar and Cuttack in Odisha, India. The name Ollywood is a portmanteau of the words Odia and Hollywood.
Ajeet Cour is an Indian writer who writes in Punjabi. She is a recipient of the Sahitya Akademi Award and the Padma Shri, the fourth-highest civilian award by the Government of India.
The Hindi blogosphere is the online community of Hindi-language weblogs that are a part of the larger Indian blogosphere.
VerseVille is a poetry e-magazine based in West Bengal, India. Since 2008 the magazine has published three to four issues per year featuring works of both new and established poets. The magazine also publishes translations, book reviews, essays on poetry and research articles. In March 2015, The Independent Newspaper mentioned the Enchanting Verses as a leading Indian electronic literary review whose prime focus is the world’s contemporary poetry and the ANI News mentioned it as a prominent international e-magazine from India later in the same month. Some notable contributors include Sidney Wade, Liao Yiwu, Donald Revell, Tom Bradley (author), Rae Desmond Jones, Martha Collins, Miguel Barnet, Diann Blakely, Charles Harper Webb, Malay Roy Choudhury, Gopi Kottoor, K. Satchidanandan, Candice James, Melissa Studdard, B. R. Dionysius, Taslima Nasrin, Hemant Divate, Abhay Kumar, Kishwar Naheed, and Nathalie Handal.
Abhay Kumar [Pen Name Abhay K.] is an Indian poet-diplomat, editor, translator and anthologist. and currently serves as the deputy director general of Indian Council for Cultural Relations (ICCR), New Delhi. He joined the Indian Foreign Service in 2003 after doing Masters in Geography at Jawaharlal Nehru University and Kirorimal College, Delhi University. He served as India's 21st ambassador to Madagascar and Comoros from 2019-2022 and as India's Deputy Ambassador to Brazil from 2016-2019. He earlier served as Spokesperson and First Secretary at the Indian Embassy in Kathmandu, Nepal from 2012-2016 and as Acting Consul General of India in St. Petersburg, and Third/Second Secretary at Indian Embassy, Moscow,Russia from 2005 t0 2010. He served as Under Secretary for Public Diplomacy at the Ministry of External Affairs from 2010-2012 and sent out the first tweet on its behalf in 2010 starting a new era of India's Digital Diplomacy.
Suman Pokhrel is a Nepali poet, lyricist, playwright, translator and artist. Universities in Nepal and India have included his poetry in their syllabus.
Abhi Subedi is a Nepali poet, playwright, columnist, translator and critic, who writes in Nepali and English.
Yajnaseni (Nepali: ne:याज्ञसेनी; is a play in Nepali by Suman Pokhrel. The play is based on the Sanskrit epic The Mahabharata and Odia novel Yajnaseni by Pratibha Ray. This play has been staged in Nepal, India and United States.
Geeta Tripathee is a Nepali poet, lyricist, essayist, literary critic and scholar. An eminent writer in Nepali, Geeta Tripathee has two volumes of poetry collection, one of lyrical poems and seven books in other literary genre to her credit. She also writes for newspapers on issues concerning women, environment and societal injustice.
The Kalinga Literary Festival, also known as KLF, is a literary festival which takes place annually in the Indian city Bhubaneswar, Odisha. Rashmi Ranjan Parida is the founder director of the festival. The festival confers three literary awards, which are Kalinga Literary Award, Kalinga International Literary Award, Kalinga Karubaki Award, annually to the noted Indian writers.
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