Archives: Authors

A.P.J. Abdul Kalam was one of India’s most distinguished scientists, responsible for the development of India’s first satellite launch vehicle and the operationalization of strategic missiles. He was also the President of India between 2002 and 2007.

Jerry Pinto is a writer of prose, poetry and children’s fiction in English and also a journalist. Some of Pinto’s noted titles include Helen: The Life and Times of an H-Bomb, Surviving Women, Leela: A Patchwork Life and Asylum and Other Poems. Pinto has translated rare works of Marathi into English, like Cobalt Blue and Baluta. His first novel, Em and the Big Hoom received the Sahitya Akademi Award (2016), the Windham-Campbell Literary Prize, The Hindu Literary Prize and the Crossword Book Award.
Of Goan origin, Pinto grew up in Mahim, Mumbai, and received his Liberal Arts degree from the Elphinstone College and a law degree from the Government Law College in Mumbai.

Naresh Fernandes is a journalist, an editor of Scroll.in and a consulting editor at National Geographic Traveler India. Fernandes is the author of Taj Mahal Foxtrot: The Story of Bombay’s Jazz Age, City Adrift: A Short Biography of Bombay and Bombay Then/Mumbai Now. He has worked with the print media publications including the Times of India, the Wall Street Journal in New York and the Associated Press in Mumbai. He won the Shakti Bhatt First Book Award for Taj Mahal Foxtrot.

Manisha Anand grew up in a tiny place in central India that no one ever bothered to put on a map, where she had several imaginary friends and read far too many books. She now lives in a tiny house in London with a lovely Northern chap, their imaginary cat and a growing collection of books that is threatening to take over. She thinks life’s turned out quite all right.

Bala Kishore is Vice President – Transformation at SEARCE Technologies. He is a British Chevening scholar and also a certified executive coach. Bala is an avid meditator, who practises Raja Yoga meditation, as taught by the Brahma Kumaris, for the past quarter of a century.

He has toured sixteen countries to deliver talks on mind, meditation, management and motivation. He is also the co-founder of ‘Spirituality in IT’ wellness retreats (https://bkitwing.org/sit) and SPIR-IT Summit wellness conference (https://www.spiritsummit.org).

You can read more about him at https://balakishore.in

Anupam Gupta is a chartered accountant, investment research consultant and podcast host. He has worked for two decades in institutional equities as an analyst and as a consultant with leading brokerages such as CLSA, HDFC Securities and Barclays. Since 2014, he is an investment research consultant with a leading domestic brokerage. Aside from his work as an equities analyst, Anupam is also a freelance writer on a range of topics from macro economy to investment perspectives. His bylines have appeared in Business Standard, Scroll and the Ken. Since mid-2017, Anupam has been hosting the Paisa Vaisa podcast, which focuses on personal finance. Through the medium of podcasts, Anupam invites experts to talk on all things money so that listeners can make well-informed financial decisions.

BlueKraft Digital Foundation is a not-for-profit organization that is actively working in the realm of policy and governance. The foundation brings together a wide spectrum of works by leading policymakers, experts and citizens to debate, discuss, deliberate and formulate new ideas that will enrich India’s development trajectory. Its work is primarily focused on promoting the spirit of voluntary participation in sectors such as holistic education, women and child empowerment, farmer welfare, conservation of the environment, digital and social media, and diaspora relations.

BlueKraft has brought out as well as compiled multiple books and research papers on topics related to policy developments, bringing to the fore unique perspectives.

Harpreet is an active angel investor-some of his deals include Chaayos, ShopKirana and Avail Finance, among others. He has seen the journey of Ola Cabs closely from before the time it started. Beyond work, Harpreet is a mountaineer and ultra hill runner. Harpreet lives with his wife, Bhakti, and daughter, Diya, in Mumbai. He is passionate about figuring out how to help people pursue their interests and abilities.

Vibhore is a business-product guy who loves flying. Post selling CoCubes, he pursued that interest and received a private pilot’s licence. Along side building CoCubes over the years, he found time to be co-founder at Babajobs and filing seven international patents during a thirteen-month stint at Microsoft R & D. He is now the founder & CEO of OneBanc, a fintech start-up. He lives with his wife, Jasjit, in Gurgaon. (Jasjit happened to be Harpreet’s cousin so it is a complicated relationship now, but we are surviving!)

Priyanka Chopra Jonas is a multifaceted talent who is one of the most recognized personalities in the world. A National Film Award winner with more than sixty international and Hollywood films to her credit, Chopra Jonas made her American TV acting debut on the ABC-TV hit drama Quantico, where she made history as the first Indian-born actor to star as the lead of a TV drama series. She was featured on the cover of Time magazine’s coveted Time 100 issue, named as one of the “Most Influential People” in the world, and recognized as one of Forbes‘s Most Powerful Women. Chopra Jonas is a global UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador, and received the prestigious Danny Kaye Humanitarian award. She is also involved in a number of efforts to protect children’s rights and to promote the education of girls around the world, including her namesake charity, The Priyanka Chopra Foundation for Health and Education.