Former Indian Police Service officer O.P. Singh has the unique distinction of having commanded three premier police organizations for close to six years. He was chief of India’s largest police force (Uttar Pradesh Police) and also the world’s stand-alone and multi-skilled response force (the National Disaster Response Force). He was also chief of the Central Industrial Security Force mandated to secure critical infrastructure and vital installations of the country. A recipient of the President’s Police Medal for Distinguished Service and Police Medal for Gallantry, Singh is recognized for his role in introducing the police commissionerate system in UP.
Known for his innovative approach to law enforcement, he had led rescue operations during the 2015 Nepal earthquake. After retirement, he has been on advisory assignments to various institutions and served as the independent external monitor for Oil India Ltd, Cochin Shipyard Ltd and the Department of Post, Government of India. He is the security and risk adviser at NatWest Group Services and CEO of the India Child Protection Fund, an organization involved in protecting children from exploitation and abuse.
Besides reading, he enjoys listening to music, travelling and mentoring young aspirants for the civil services.
गौरव उपाध्याय पेशे से एक सीनियर टेक्नोलॉजी प्रोफेशनल हैं और अभी सिंगापुर में बहुराष्ट्रीय कंपनी Adobe में कार्यरत हैं। अपने पंद्रह सालों के कॉरपोरेट कैरियर और बीस से भी अधिक देशों में रहने या घूमने के बाद, पिछले कुछ सालों से गौरव ने लेखन के ज़रिए अपना अनुभव साझा करना शुरू किया है। सोशल मीडिया में दो लाख से ज़्यादा फ़ालोअर्स से जुड़े गौरव, अपने लेखन और कविताओं के माध्यम से लोगों को अपने जीवन में बेहतर बनने की ओर ले जाने के मुहिम में जुड़े हैं। गौरव इसके पहले प्रकाशित अपनी पुस्तक मोस्ट वांटेड ज़िंदगी के लिए भी जाने जाते हैं, जिन्हें पढ़कर हज़ारों लोग प्रेरित हुए हैं। अपनी कविताओं और लेखों में भावनात्मक और व्यावहारिक संतुलन बनाते हुए, गौरव, हिंदी में मोटिवेशन और सेल्फ़ हेल्प श्रेणी के लेखन में नई दिशा लेकर आए हैं। गौरव Tedx स्पीकर भी रह चुके हैं और कई राष्ट्रीय एवं अंतर्राष्ट्रीय मंचों पर अपने विचार साझा करते हैं। इनकी रचनाएँ अंतर्राष्ट्रीय पत्रिकाओं में छप चुकी हैं और टेक्नोलॉजी तथा कैरियर से संबंधित संस्थाओं में बतौर मेंटॉर सक्रिय हैं।
गौरव का जन्म बिहार के मोतिहारी शहर में हुआ था और उन्होंने इंजिनीरिंग और एमबीए की शिक्षा प्राप्त करने के बाद कई देशों में रहकर काम किया है। गौरव अभी अपने परिवार के साथ पिछले दस सालों से सिंगापुर में रहते हैं।
युकारी लॉस एंजिल्स में रहने वाली एक स्वतंत्र पत्रकार एवं लेखिका हैं। वह टोक्यो में पली-बढ़ीं और अपने परिवार के साथ न्यूयॉर्क जाने से पहले उन्होंने अपना अधिकांश बचपन जापान में बिताया। 2004 में, कीयो विश्वविद्यालय से स्नातक करने के बाद उन्होंने स्वतंत्र रूप से अनुवादक और लेखक के तौर पर कार्य करना आरंभ किया। उनका अधिकांश लेखन जापानी भाषा में है, लेकिन इतना लोकप्रिय है कि दुनिया की अनेक भाषाओं में अनुवाद हुआ है।
Arsh Verma is a 2017-batch Haryana cadre IPS officer. He is an alumnus of St John’s High School, Chandigarh, and Hindu College, University of Delhi. Besides writing, he enjoys drawing comics and playing golf.
Siddhartha Gigoo, winner of the 2015 Commonwealth Short Story Prize (Asia) for his short story, ‘The Umbrella Man’, has published two books of poetry—Fall and Other Poems and Reflections, four novels—The Garden of Solitude, Mehr: A Love Story, The Lion of Kashmir, Love in the Time of Quarantine—and a book of short stories—A Fistful of Earth and Other Stories (long listed for the 2015 Frank O’Connor International Short Story Award). He has co-edited two anthologies, A Long Dream of Home: The Persecution, Exodus and Exile of Kashmiri Pandits and Once We Had Everything: Literature in Exile. In 2021, Siddhartha won the New Asian Short Story Prize for his short story, ‘Elephant’s Tusk’. His short stories have been long-listed for the Lorian Hemingway Short Story Prize, the Royal Society of Literature’s V.S. Pritchett Short Story Prize and the Seán O’Faoláin Short Story Prize. Siddhartha’s short films, The Last Day and Goodbye, Mayfly, have won several awards at international film festivals. His writings also appear in various literary journals.
Prakhar Gupta is an entrepreneur, podcaster, content creator and keynote speaker. Equipped with a deep understanding of human behaviour, Prakhar creates content around psychology, philosophy, culture and life. His ideas have popularized him on the internet and within a few years, he has built a community of over half a million followers across YouTube, Instagram, Twitter and LinkedIn.
Prakhar co-founded LearnWithPrakhar, India’s first EdTech platform for super skills, in 2021.
He holds a degree in economics and psychology from Columbia University, New York, and is a regular speaker at top institutes across India.
Mudit Yadav is a keynote speaker and executive coach who has spoken to more than 4,50,000 people from over forty-eight countries and also at multiple TEDx events. He is also the co-author of Don’t Shut Up: How to Talk So the World Listens. He works with celebrities, executives and entrepreneurs, enabling them to be more successful, develop greater presence, elevate their communication skills and lead a life of abundance. He has conducted sessions in six continents for various organizations, including AmEx, Workday, Google, Siemens, PwC, EY, Deloitte, Cisco, Caterpillar, Roche, IIMA and IIMC. He is also a chartered accountant, CFA charterholder and ex-strategy consultant.
Rajrishi Singhal has been a senior journalist, banker and public policy analyst-cum-consultant. He was executive editor at the Economic Times, consulting editor with Mint, head (policy, research and strategy) at a private sector bank and senior fellow for geoeconomic studies at a Mumbai-based think tank. Rajrishi has a master’s degree in economics from Jadavpur University, Kolkata, and is the recipient of two prestigious fellowships: Gurukul Chevening fellow at the London School of Economics (1997–98) and the C.V. Starr fellow at the Center for the Advanced Study of India, University of Pennsylvania (2002).
Rajrishi has served on two government committees appointed to re-examine policy options in areas of financial services such as pension-sector reforms. Apart from his independent consulting practice relating to financial services and public policy, he writes a fortnightly column for Mint (called ‘General Disequilibrium’) and another one on financial services for moneycontrol.com.
He currently lives in Mumbai with his wife and two daughters.
VIDYAN RAVINTHIRAN was born in Leeds, to Sri Lankan Tamils. His first book of poems, Grun-tu-molani (Bloodaxe, 2014), was shortlisted for the Forward Prize for Best First Collection, the Seamus Heaney Centre Poetry Prize and the Michael Murphy Memorial Prize. His second, The
Million-petalled Flower of Being Here (Bloodaxe, 2019) was shortlisted for the Forward Prize for Best Collection, the T.S. Eliot Prize and Ledbury Munthe Poetry Prize for Second Collections. After posts at Cambridge, Durham
and Birmingham, he now teaches at Harvard.
SENI SENEVIRATNE, a writer of English and Sri Lankan heritage published by Peepal Tree Press, with books including Wild Cinnamon and Winter Skin (2007), The Heart of It (2012), and Unknown Soldier (2019), which was a Poetry Book Society Recommendation, a National
Poetry Day Choice and highly commended in the Forward Poetry Prizes 2020. She is currently working on an LGBTQ project with Sheffield Museums entitled Queering the Archive and completing her fourth collection to be
published by Peepal Tree in 2023. She lives in Derbyshire.
