Probal DasGupta is an author, historian and columnist. He is the author of the bestselling book – Watershed 1967: India’s Forgotten Victory Over China’ and ‘Camouflaged: Forgotten Stories from Battlefields.
An alumnus of Columbia University in New York (USA), Probal is a Braun-Myers Fellow, JN Tata Scholar and RD Sethna Scholar. He served with Gorkha Rifles in the Indian Army before transitioning into a business leader. Probal headed up global consulting firms in South Asia and is the founder of Birdstone – advisors to firms on investment risks, governance and reputation.
A corporate speaker on geopolitics and history, he writes a column in the media and is the founder of a literature festival. Probal lives in Mumbai with his wife Nisha and has two children – Siddharth and Arayna.
Shripal Morakhia is a serial entrepreneur. He went to the US in 1979 on sponsorship by the New York Stock Exchange and after his MBA worked as the Executive Assistant to the President of NYSE for a year. His journey was cut short by the death of his father and he returned to India in 1981. In the early ‘90s, he promoted SSKI and Sharekhan. SSKI was the first ‘Made in India’ brokerage and investment banking firm that served Foreign Institutional Investors (FIIs) and was a leading investment banker for media, telecom, and infra placements to private equity and strategic investors. Sharekhan was a pioneer in combining the brick-and-click model of retail broking. Shripal also produced/distributed 16 feature films including Jajantaram Mamantaram, Bend it Like Beckham and Monsoon Wedding.
Harshveer Jain is an alumni of IIT Bombay and IIM Calcutta. Over the last 10 years, he has worked extensively in advertising, management consulting, public policy and technology. His primary job role has been to summarize and present information in digestible manner – whether it be ads, CEO presentations or governance impact. And that’s what he’s trying to do with this book.
Over the last 4 years, Harshveer has also built a credible niche as an artist and speaker – with 450k+ followers across Instagram and LinkedIn, 10+ TedX talks, multiple radio and podcast appearances and self-curated online courses.
He is constantly in awe of his parents and believes that family > everything. And that’s the backbone of everything he is or does.
Natarajan Srinivasan is a commerce graduate, a Member of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India and the Institute of Company Secretaries of India. He has more than 35 years of corporate experience spanning across finance, legal, Projects and General Management functions. He started his career with BHEL, and his last 20 years of service has been with the Murugappa Group, a Chennai based industrial conglomerate, where he held several senior positions as under, (from 2004 -2024) Director- Murugappa Corporate Board, Group Finance Director, Murugappa Group Lead Director – financial services business (NBFC and General Insurance businesses) Executive Vice Chairman and Managing Director of Cholamandalam Investments and finance company Ltd. Managing Director & CEO, CG power and industrial solutions ltd He also served the Boards of (1) Tube Investments of India Ltd, (2) Cholamandalam MS General Insurance Ltd (3) TI Financial holdings Ltd. In Dec 2018, the Government of India appointed him to the Board of Infrastructure & Leasing Financial services Ltd as an Independent Director, as part of the New Board under the Chairmanship of Uday Kotak to resolve the issues faced by the crisis ridden company and Srinivasan served the Board of ILFS and its material subsidiaries for a period of 4 years.
Srinivasan was appointed as MD&CEO of CG power and Industrial solutions Ltd (CGPISL) on 26.11.2020. This company was acquired by Murugappa Group under the Stressed assets resolution mechanism of Reserve Bank of India.
The team led by Srinivasan took several steps to resolve the legacy issues at CGPISL and to turn around the operations. Within 30 months, the business performance improved sharply, the company generated profits, repaid all debt and was back to the dividend list. Reflecting the progress the market capitalization crossed One lakh crore. This is acknowledged in industrial circles as the fastest corporate turnaround witnessed in recent times. NS retired from CG in July 2024. Srinivasan currently lives in Mumbai with his wife Rajeswari.
ROMILA THAPAR is emeritus professor of history at Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi. She is a fellow of the British Academy and holds an Hon D.Litt each from the University of Calcutta, University of Oxford and the University of Chicago. In 2008, Thapar was awarded the prestigious Kluge Prize of the US Library of Congress for Lifetime Achievement in the Humanities and Social Sciences. She has authored over twenty-five books.
Geetha Iyer is an ardent wildlife watcher, naturalist, author, teacher and consultant in the twin fields of education and environment. A zoology graduate with a Ph.D in Education from Madras University, she was a biology teacher for well over 25 years and Head of Sahyadri School, KFI, Pune for three years. She enjoys conducting workshops and giving talks on education, environment and natural history for diverse groups ranging from students, teachers to scientists, nurses and forest guards. An established author of non-fiction works on the natural history of India, her previous books have been published by Harper Collins (2016), Rishi Valley Education Centre (2009) and Orient Blackswan (two books on EE in 2010). She is also the series editor for middle-school science books with Collins India. She observes, reads and researches insects, especially moths on which subject she has also published scientific papers. Geetha lives in the picturesque village of Suchindram with her husband and her dog Simba.
