E. Sridharan is the Academic Director of the University of Pennsylvania Institute for the Advanced Study of India (in New Delhi). He is a political scientist who has researched comparative politics, political economy of development, and international relations. He is the author or editor of 9 books and has published 58 journal articles and chapters in edited volumes. He is the Editor of  India Review, a pan-social science refereed (Routledge, USA) quarterly on India, and is on the Editorial Board of the UK-based journal, Commonwealth and Comparative Politics. He did his PhD in Political Science from the University of Pennsylvania. 

Nitin Birmal is Associate Professor of Political Science at Dr. Ambedkar College, Yerawada, Pune. His main area of work is Maharashtra’s political economy. He is also state coordinator for Maharashtra for the Lokniti network. 

Amiya K. Chaudhuri is a retired Professor of Political Science. Presently engaged as Senior Fellow of the Maulana Abul Kalam Azad Institute of Asian Studies, he is writing a book on contemporary Bangladesh. In addition to 7 books, he has written 40 articles in edited volumes and refereed journals. A regular contributor to and feature writer for Bengali news dailies and magazines, he is associated with many international institutions. 

Vivek Ghotale is Research Assistant at the Department of Politics and Public Administration, University of Pune. He is currently engaged in research on the politics of the dominant caste in Maharashtra. 

K.K. Kailash is with the Department of Political Science at Hyderabad Central University. His research interests focus on political institutions and governance, elections, coalition politics and processes and issues of federalism in contemporary India. He has published in the Economic and Political Weekly, Seminar, India Review, Canada Watch and Asian Survey, and has contributed to numerous edited volumes. He is also a regular contributor to the Indian Express. He is currently a co-investigator in a research project, Comparative State Politics and Public Policy in India, being conducted in conjunction with the Lokniti/Centre for the Study of Developing Societies (CSDS), New Delhi, and the King’s India Institute, London. This project brings electoral politics back into conversation with the study of public policy, with special emphasis on the framing of social policy within India’s states in the context of economic liberalisation. He is member of the Lokniti network and a honorary fellow at the Centre for Multilevel Federalism, Institute of Social Sciences, New Delhi. Before coming to Hyderabad Central University, he was at Panjab University, Chandigarh, and at the Regional Institute of Education (NCERT), Bhopal.

G. Gopa Kumar is currently the Indian Council of Social Science Research (ICSSR) Senior Fellow at the University of Kerala. He was formerly University Grants Commission (UGC) Emeritus Fellow, Dean of Social Sciences, and Professor and Head, Department of Political Science, University of Kerala. He was also Director-General of the Institute of Parliamentary Affairs, Government of Kerala, during 2009-2011. He has been at the University for nearly 16 years as Professor and has 38 years of teaching experience; published 12 books and over 140 research articles; successfully guided 26 PhDs and 45 MPhil students; and served on several national and international professional bodies. As an internationally renowned scholar in political science specialising in comparative politics, international relations and Kerala politics, a noted psephologist and passionate pedagogue, he has won several international and national fellowships and awards including the UGC Research Scientist (1988-89), Indo-French Cultural Exchange Award (Paris, 1990), International Visitors Leadership Award (USA, 1996), Salzburg Award (1998), Fulbright Award (California, 1998), Shasthri Indo-Canadian Award (University of Calgary, 2000, and McGill University, 2006), Fulbright International Educational Cooperation Award (2002-2006), Visiting Professor (University of Calgary, 2001), Visiting Professor (Claremont Graduate University, 2003), Australia-India Council Senior Fellowship (Monash University, 2009), Visiting Research Fellow (University of New South Wales, Sydney, 2010, and Prince of Songkla University, Phuket, Thailand, 2010) and UGC Emeritus Fellow (2011-2013).

Pramod Kumar is Director, Institute for Development and Communication (IDC), Chandigarh. His work focuses on three interrelated themes: the politics of development and governance; politics of conflict management and resolution; and practice of democracy through empirical methodologies and analysis of public policy and peoples’ movements. He is recipient of the Homi Bhabha Award for 1988-1990. He has published a number of books and articles on Dalit identity, communal violence, terrorism in Punjab, and the criminal justice system. He has contributed several research articles on electoral politics in India to edited volumes on Indian politics, such as “The 1998 Elections: Regionalism, Hindutva and State Politics” (1999), “India’s 1999 Elections and 20th Century Politics” (2003) and “India’s 2004 Elections: Grassroots and National Perspectives” (2007), all volumes edited by Paul Wallace and Ramashray Roy.

Sanjay Kumar is a Professor and currently Director at the CSDS. He is also Co-Director of Lokniti, a research programme of the CSDS. He has recently published an edited volume: Indian Youth and Electoral Politics: An Emerging Engagement. He has also published Changing Electoral Politics in Delhi: From Caste to Class and Measuring Voting Behaviour in India (with Praveen Rai). His other publications include: Rise of the Plebeians? The Changing Face of Indian Legislative Assemblies (with Christophe Jaffrelot) and Indian Youth in a Transforming World: Attitudes and Perceptions (with Peter R. de Souza and Sandeep Shastri). He has contributed chapters to several edited volumes, written various research reports, published articles in both international and national research journals, and writes regularly for the popular newspapers. As an expert in survey research, he has directed various national and state-level studies conducted by the CSDS, including the National Election Studies (NES) 1998, 1999, 2004 and 2009 and various rounds of the bi-annual State of the Nation Survey. While his core area of research is electoral politics, using survey methods as a research tool, he has also been engaged in research on Indian youth, the state of democracy in South Asia, slums of Delhi and issues of electoral violence.

Suhas Palshikar is with the Department of Politics and Public Administration, University of Pune. His main area of interest is democratic politics in India. He has written extensively on India’s party politics. He is currently also the Co-Director of the Lokniti programme of the CSDS, New Delhi, and Chief Editor of the journal Studies in Indian Politics. 

Rupangi Sharma is a writer and an educationist. Her collection of poems, A Loving Embrace, was published in 2007. The late K.S. Duggal hailed her as ‘a poet who sings to the new age’. Her focus in the field of education is on the power of technology and its transformational role in learning and teaching.

She has worked with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) Media Lab, Central Institute of Education Technology (a constituent unit of NCERT) and the Riverside School in Ahmedabad, among other leading educational institutions in India and abroad. 

AMITA BAVISKAR

BARKHA DUTT

BHALCHANDRA MUNGEKAR

C. RAMMANOHAR REDDY

CHARLES CORREA

FALI S. NARIMAN

GANESH N. DEVY

GOPALKRISHNA GANDHI

HAMEED HAROON

HARSH SETHI

JAITHIRTH RAO

JASWANT SINGH

J.B. KRIPALANI

KAMAL HOSSAIN

KANAK MANI DIXIT

K.R. NARAYANAN

MALVIKA SINGH

NAYANTARA SAHGAL

PETER DESOUZA

PUPUL JAYAKAR

RAJ THAPAR

RAMACHANDRA GUHA

ROMILA THAPAR

RUDRANGSHU MUKHERJEE

SALMAN KHURSHID

SHASHI THAROOR

SHIV VISVANATHAN

SHIVSHANKAR MENON

SHYAM BENEGAL

SRI MADHAVA ASHISH

SUNIL KHILNANI

TEJBIR SINGH

T.N. NINAN

Anand Sharma, author and political activist, is Deputy Leader of Congress Parliamentary Party in Rajya Sabha. He was the Union Cabinet Minister of Commerce & Industry and Textiles. Also held portfolios of External Affairs and Information and Broadcasting. He is recognised for his proactive commitment to the struggle against Apartheid in South Africa. He was instrumental in organising the Satyagraha Centenary Conference in 2007 as Secretary General. He played a significant role in organising the international conference to commemorate the 125th Birth Anniversary of Pt. Jawaharlal Nehru as Convenor in 2014. Moved India’s Resolution in the Special Session of United Nations General Assembly on 15 June 2007 to declare 2nd October as International Day of Non-violence.

Pranab Mukherjee is India’s thirteenth and current President. A powerful orator and scholar, Shri Mukherjee’s intellectual and political prowess as well as remarkable knowledge of international relations, financial affairs and parliamentary process are widely admired. He has been acclaimed for his role as a consensus builder on difficult national issues through his ability to forge unity amongst the diverse political parties that form part of India’s vibrant multi-party democracy.

M. Hamid Ansari is India’s twelfth and current Vice-President. He has been in the office since 2007 and is the only person after Dr S. Radhakrishnan to get re-elected to the post of Vice President of India. A veteran diplomat, he served at various Indian missions including in Saudi Arabia, Baghdad, Rabat, Jeddah, Brussels¸ United Arab Emirates, Australia, Afghanistan and Iran, and has also held various academic positions. 

Sonia Gandhi is President of the Indian National Congress since 1998, the longest serving president in the 125-year history of the Congress party. She is the Chairperson of the Congress Parliamentary Party and has served as the Chairperson of the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance, which formed the national government from 2004 to 2014. She chaired the international conference convened by the Indian National Congress to commemorate the centenary of Satyagraha in 2007 and the international conference to mark 125th anniversary of Jawaharlal Nehru.

Sam Nujoma is a Namibian revolutionary, anti-apartheid activist and statesman who served three terms as the first President of Namibia (1990 to 2005). He was a founding member and the first president of the South West Africa People’s Organization (SWAPO) in 1960. He played an important role as leader of the national liberation movement in campaigning for Namibia’s independence from South African rule.

Sheikh Hasina is the current Prime Minister of Bangladesh. She is the eldest daughter of Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, father of Bangladesh. She is the president of ruling political party, Awami League since 1981. An astute political leader, she became Leader of the Opposition in the country’s Fifth Parliament following the election of 1991 and steered all the political parties in the parliament towards changing the Presidential system into the Parliamentary one.

Jigme Singye Wangchuck became the 4th Dragon King of Bhutan at the tender age of 16 upon his father’s sudden death in 1972. Beginning his reign as an absolute monarch, he was instrumental in the democratisation of Bhutan and transition to a constitutional monarchy—continuing the steps that his father had begun. 

Chandrika Bandaranaike Kumaratunga, member of a prominent Sri Lankan political family, was the fifth President of Sri Lanka (1994-2006). She is the first and only woman to serve as the country’s president. During her Presidency, Chandrika Kumaratunga led the successful privatisation of state enterprises in a range of industries and her government enacted new laws and institutions to tackle rampant state corruption. She also helped Sri Lanka move away from its pro-war, confrontational mind-set to one of negotiation and peace.

K. Shankar Bajpai, a veteran Indian diplomat and expert in security issues, has been active in academia, working as a professor at the University of California, Stanford University and other institutions, since his retirement. He joined the Indian Foreign Service in 1952, serving in Germany, Turkey and Pakistan. He also served as ambassador to Pakistan (1976-1980), China (1980-1982) and the United States (1984-1986), and as secretary of the Ministry of External Affairs (1982 to 1983). He was also the co-founder and chairman of the Delhi Policy Group, an independent think tank in India.

Shyam Benegal, a renowned Indian director and screenwriter, originated what has come to be called “middle cinema”. He has also produced movies for various government organisations and a 53-episode television series on Jawaharlal Nehru’s Discovery of India called Bharat Ek Khoj (1988). A respected documentary film-maker, he has directed The Making of the Mahatma (1996), a joint Indian-South African production about the early life of Mahatma Gandhi during his 21 years in South Africa. 

Aditya Mukherjee is Professor of Contemporary Indian History, Centre for Historical Studies and Dean, School of Social Sciences, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi. He specialises in Economic History, particularly business history and the political economy of post-colonial development. 

Wajahat Habibullah, an able administrator of the Indian Administrative Service, was the first Chief Information Commissioner of India. He was also Chairperson of the National Commission for Minorities and Secretary to the Government of India in the Ministry of Panchayati Raj. 

Anand Sharma, author and political activist, is Deputy Leader of Congress Parliamentary Party in Rajya Sabha. He was the Union Cabinet Minister of Commerce & Industry and Textiles. Also held portfolios of External Affairs and Information and Broadcasting. He is recognised for his proactive commitment to the struggle against Apartheid in South Africa. He was instrumental in organising the Satyagraha Centenary Conference in 2007 as Secretary General. He played a significant role in organising the international conference to commemorate the 125th Birth Anniversary of Pt. Jawaharlal Nehru as Convenor in 2014. Moved India’s Resolution in the Special Session of United Nations General Assembly on 15 June 2007 to declare 2nd October as International Day of Non-violence.