2025

Anju Ranjan is an Indian Foreign Service officer and currently posted as Deputy Director General, Indian Council for Cultural Relations under Ministry of External Affairs. She is a Hindi language writer with several books to her credit, including Prem ke Vibhinn rang, Visthapan aur Yaadein, Wo Kagaz Ki Kashti and Corona ke Dauraan. Her upcoming books are Ek Rajnayik Ki Corona Diary and Hindi Translation of Select Poems of Robert Burns.

Ann Morgan is a writer, speaker, and editor based in Folkestone, UK. Her book Reading the World: How I Read a Book From Every Country (published as The World Between Two Covers in the US) explores the big ideas that emerged from her year-long journey of reading a book from every country in 2012. This project has since grown into a lifelong endeavour, and Ann now dedicates much of her time to corresponding with readers, writers, and translators around the world, as well as championing the sharing of stories that are often overlooked by the anglophone publishing industry.

In addition to her non-fiction work, Ann is the author of two novels: the international bestseller Beside Myself and Crossing Over.

When she’s not writing, Ann speaks at events and leads reading workshops, both in-person and online. As a producer of the Royal Literary Fund’s Writers Aloud podcast, she enjoys engaging with other writers about their creative processes.

Ann also offers mentoring and editing services, drawing on her extensive experience working with some of the UK’s leading newspapers and magazines.

Anuradha Sarma Pujari is a popular author, columnist and senior journalist of Assam. She is the editor of leading Assamese weekly Sadin and also that of literary magazine Satsori, which is enlisted by UGC-CARE.

She has authored 27 books, including 12 novels, 6 short story collections, and 9 autobiographical essays among others. She has also edited several books, journals and magazines. She regularly contributes articles to leading newspapers and magazines. Her first Assamese novel Hriday Ek Bigyapan (My Poems are not for your Ad-Campaign) is widely regarded as a bestseller. Several of her other novels have been translated into English, Hindi and some other Indian languages.

Among her noteworthy awards are Sahitya Akademi in Assamese language and Film Fare Award for best story for Assamese cinema.

An Indian Administrative Service (IAS) official, B Kalyan Chakravarthy has held various positions in Government of Assam, Government of Telangana and Government of India. He is currently serving as Additional Chief Secretary to Government of Assam. An expert in environmental issues, he has represented Government of Telangana at global climate conferences, including COP21 in Paris, COP23 in Bonn, and COP24 in Poland. As Director General, Environment Protection Training and Research Institute, he has significantly contributed towards developing it into a world class institute. During his association with Telangana State Pollution Control Board, he was instrumental in implementing green belt coverage in apartments, studies to improve biomedical waste management, strict implementation of pollution control parameters by industries, etc. He has also guided core technical teams in preparation of specialised reports on environment issues and in conducting international training programmes for government officers.

Brigadier (Retd.) Ranjit Borthakur  is an Indian Army veteran, author and columnist. He has authored two books in Assamese. The first book O’Mama, O’Khura, O’Dada, O’Ranjit is a collection of anecdotes mostly experienced in his post retirement life. The other book Chipahi Gurbinder Singhor Helikaptarat Uthar Sapon contains 34 anecdotes, reflecting emotions and sentiments of armed forces personnel posted in hostile environments. He is a regular contributor of articles in English and Assamese newspapers. He is also a guest lecturer on contemporary topics in army and civil institutions.

Dhruba Hazarika is novelist, short story writer and a columnist. Till date, he has published two novels – A Bowstring Winter and Sons of Brahma – and two collections of short stories – Luck and The Shoot.

A recipient of Katha Award for Fiction in English and DY 365 Award for Literature, he has also been a columnist during the past 40 years for The Telegraph, The Sentinel and The Assam Tribune newspapers while his short stories have been published in prominent literary magazines, including Indian Literature, USAWA Literary Journal, The Bombay Literary Magazine, Melange, Newfrontiers and others.

Apart from his fascination for cosmology, he prefers traveling the North-East of India, a hunting ground for most of his stories.  He divides his time between Guwahati and Shillong.

One of India’s internationally acclaimed filmmakers Jahnu Barua was born on 18 October 1952 in Assam. He graduated in Science from Gauhati University and did his post graduation diploma in Film Direction from Film & TV Institute of India (FTII), Pune.

A twelve-time National Award winner, he has been making films in Assamese and Hindi. With more than thirty international awards in various film festivals worldwide, Barua’s films are regarded socially relevant and critically acclaimed nationally as well as internationally with innumerable recognitions.

Barua has been conferred ‘Padma Shri’ in 2003 and ‘Padma Bhushan’ in 2015 by the President of India. Other major honours include Kamal Kumari National Award for Culture, Tarun Duara Oil India Award, Bhabendra Nath Saikia Award, Best Assamese Award, Bhupen Hazarika Award, Bhupen Hazarika Kothachobi Ratna, Hindi Sevi Puraskar, Doctor of Literature (D. Litt.), Krishna Kanta Handiqui State Open University National Fellowship, etc.

A former chief of Assam Police, he retired as Director General, National Security Guards (NSG). He also served in the Intelligence Bureau for over quarter of a century, mostly in the North-East and West Bengal. On deputation to MEA, he served at Indian Embassy, Washington DC. Post retirement, he was Vice-President, Public Health Foundation of India and an Independent Director on the Board of Gas Authority of India Ltd (GAIL).

He is currently Special Monitor with National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) for Criminal Justice (Except Courts); Trustee of Mission Smile and Vision Spring; Vice-President & Member North-East, Centre for North-East and Eastern Region Studies, Kolkata (CENERS-K); and Distinguished Fellow, United Service Institution of India (USI).

K.S. Nair has been writing on Indian Air Force and military issues in developing countries for over 20 years. He has published around 100 related articles, including some in American, British and Japanese publications. He has written three books – Ganesha’s Flyboys on IAF in Congo in 1960s; The Forgotten Few on IAF in World War II; and December in Dacca on Indian armed forced in Bangladesh Liberation War of 1971. He has contributed to several other books, including Dragon Fire by Pushpindar Singh in which he contributed bulk of the pre-Independence and World War II content; The India Pakistan Air War 1965 by PVS Jagan Mohan and Samir Chopra; and Burma Air War by Hiroshi Umemoto.