Hari Kiran
Hari Kiran Vadlamani ( Hari) is a Chartered Accountant by qualification and a serial entrepreneur, having been involved in four ventures in Technology and Energy sectors.
He is deeply passionate about Art, Philosophy and Indian Cultural Heritage and is a Dharmic- Indic Liberal.
In 2015 he transformed himself into a Social Entrepreneur pursuing the preservation, protection and promotion of Indian Heritage. He founded INDICA ( www.indica.in) and NICE (www.niceorg.in) , both not for profits in the area of Cultural Education and Entrepreneurship.
Hari brings in an entrepreneurial mindset to his work of delivering indigenous knowledge as a service, product or an experience by incubating a portfolio of ideas, rapid prototyping, absorbing failures, applying a three horizon framework, thinking of scale etc.
Having the mindset of a venture investor, Hari is focussed on backing passionate individuals. He encourages, enables and empowers them to discover, nurture and express their creative potential. He believes in transforming the narrator and not the narrative.
A strong advocate of pluralism, Hari envisions a vibrant ecosystem of diverse set of players and ideas and seeks to build the enabling infrastructure.
Hari believes that Indian thought and the indigenous way of life from various global traditions have solutions to some of the key challenges we face today, especially sustainability, happiness, well-being and peace. He is working on developing the requisite institutional mechanisms that can transform a billion global consumers into conscious thinkers, entrepreneurs, leaders and most importantly seekers.
He has developed a unique six dimensional integral strategy for pursuing this vision.
Dr Yogini Deshpande
Dr. Yogini Deshpande is a practicing Civil Engineer by profession. She is the Editor-in-Chief of Indic Today.
Dr Deshpande has degrees from Mumbai University & Purdue University & diverse experience in academia, research & consulting. She has been associated with Indic Academy since it’s inception & is it’s Mumbai Chapter coordinator. She is an avid reader, Indian Classical Music aficionado & keen political observer.
Padma Shri Smt Malini Awasthi
Padma Shri Smt. Malini Awasthi is a post-graduate as well as a gold medalist in Hindustani classical music from Bhatkhande University, Lucknow. Also, she achieved a gold medal in M.A. Modern History with a specialization in Medieval and modern Indian architecture, University of Lucknow. She is a Ganda bandh student of Legendary Hindustani Classical Singer, Padma Vibhushan Vidushi Girija Devi of Banaras Gharana. She was awarded Padma Shri by the Government of India in 2016 for her work in the field of music.
Prof Subhash Kak
Padmashri Prof. Subhash Kak is an Indian-American computer scientist who has made major contributions to cryptography, artificial neural networks and is recognized as one of the pioneers of quantum computing. Prof. Kak was awarded the Padma Shri in 2018 for his work on the history of science, the philosophy of science, ancient astronomy, and the history of mathematics. He is the author of 12 books including The Nature of Physical Reality, The Architecture of Knowledge, and Mind and Self.
Prof Gauri Mahulikar
Prof. Gauri Mahulikar is a well-respected Sanskrit scholar currently appointed as Professor & Dean of Faculty, Chinmaya Vishwavidyapeeth. In her career, she has also been the Former Head of the Sanskrit Department at Mumbai University and Former Head of Gurudev Tagore Chair of Comparative Literature at Mumbai University. She has received many awards for her research in Sanskrit language and her continued work for its preservation. In 2013 she received the Kavikulaguru Kalidas Sanskrit Sadhana Puraskar constituted by the Maharashtra State Government.
Prof Nagaraj Paturi
Prof. Nagaraj Paturi is trained in Sanskrit and Advaita Vedanta by his hyper-polyglot, polymath and spiritually accomplished Sakala-shaastra-paarangata father, late Sri Paturi Sitaramanjaneyulu garu, he is seriously committed to the transmission of Vedic sciences to the present generation. He designed a very big number of courses of contemporary applications of Vedic Sciences and has been successfully teaching them and getting them taught. Presently he is Director, Inter-Gurukula – University Centre for Indic knowledge Systems of Indic Academy And Distinguished Professor, Curriculum Designer, Executive Committee Member, and Member, Board of Studies, MIT School of Vedic Sciences, Pune. Member, Board of Studies for Chinmaya Vishwavidyapeeth, Kavikulaguru Kalidasa Sanskrit University, Veda Vijnana Gurukula. Formerly Senior Professor of Cultural Studies.
Sumedha V Ojha
Sumedha Verma Ojha is an author, columnist and speaker, was born in Patna and educated in Delhi, graduating in Economics (Lady Sriram College) and post-graduating in Sociology (Delhi School of economics). After 15 years in the Indian Revenue Service she switched careers to research and write a book set in the Mauryan period based on the Arthashastra of Chanakya. ‘Urnabhih’ then expanded into a book series on the Mauryan Empire. Sumedha is a Member of the Editorial Advisory Board at Indic Today.
She works in the area of translating and explaining the epics and bringing ancient Sanskrit/Prakrit literature to the English speaking Indian as also in the area of a gendered analysis of ancient India. She lives with her husband near Geneva and has two children both studying in the US.
Manish Mundra
Manish Mundra is a rare combination of successful Corporate Leadership abilities and a fine eye for creative arts. A native of Deoghar, Jharkhand, he joined Indorama Eleme Petrochemicals in Nigeria in 2002 and quickly climbed the Corporate ladder with his managerial capabilities to become the CEO and MD of the company in 2010. In 2014 Manish Mundra started his own venture called Drishyam Films & Production House which has produced International Award winners such as Masan and Newton and National Award winner Dhanak.
Manish Shrivastava
My journey embarked as a philanthropist of Hindi Language, which is also my mother tongue, had initiated in my college days as a playwright but came to a standstill when the burden of livelihood overpowered the adoration and pursuit of writing. My profession ranged-rover me to different parts of India starting from Bundelkhand, which is also my native place, to Western UP, Madhya Pradesh, Andhra, Kerala, and Karnataka. The passage and the extensive experience took me to South East Asia and presently settled in Jakarta, Indonesia.
But the aspiration to accomplish my dream in writing and exploring ideas to serve an enriched platform for Hindi readers made me pen down my first Hindi novel “Roohi-Ek Paheli” and its scrupulous acceptance among the masses made my confidence in writing more prominent and hence ”Main Munna Hu” was conceived on papers.
C Surendranath
Surendranath Chandranath is a columnist and speaker on various topics relating to India's History and specifically the traditional knowledge systems. He is the Consulting Editor at Indic Today. Surendranath has run workshops on the 6 vedangas, written on issues of cultural encounters that India has had in the past several centuries. He is a rasika of Carnatic music and folks art forms like therukoothu. He has also received basic training in Vedic chanting and is an avid student of ritualism across cultures. Surendranath has been a software engineer for 22 years and has Undergraduate and Master's Degrees in Technology from IIT, Bombay. He lives in Chennai with his wife of 20 years and two children.
Shivakumar GV
Shivakumar GV is an IT professional with a deep interest in Bharateeya Samskriti. His special areas of interest are Mahabharata and RigVeda. He writes on Mahabharata regularly at IndicToday. He is deeply interested in understanding the Bharateeya Itihaasa, Puraana, Tatva-Shastra, and civilizational challenges faced by Bharateeya Parampara. He firmly believes that our "Chaturvidha Purushartha" holds a perspective that shapes every aspect of human life very different from Modernity. Currently, he is on a research grant from Indic Academy to study "History of Creative Liberty in Bharateeya Parampara". Apart from this, he is passionate about Kannada Literature from its classical to the present times. He is a Consulting Editor for Indic Today and contributes to the Kannada language pieces.
Aparna M Sridhar
Aparna M Sridhar joins as the Editor for Center for Soft Power (www.centerforsoftpower.org) and Consulting Editor for Arts at Indic Today. Aparna is a senior journalist and editor, with decades of experience in journalism and allied fields. She is a DFID scholar with a Masters (with Distinction) from the Scarman Centre for Public Order from the University of Leicester, UK, a graduate of the Asian College of Journalism, Bangalore (now Chennai).
Aparna successfully edited a much-appreciated monthly Indian classical music magazine called, Saamagaana, The First Melody, for over four years. Earlier, she has worked with many mainstream newspapers, and she continues to free-lance for leading dailies. Her interest in classical arts, heritage, and Indic knowledge systems, and their place both within modern India as well as on the International stage, brought her to the Center for Soft Power, a collaborative effort between India Foundation and Indic Academy.
In her role as Editor she engages with leading scholars, artists, writers, scientists, journalists, and Indophiles at large, showcasing the beauty, relevance, and unparalleled value of Indian heritage to all of humanity.
Welcoming her to her new responsibility, Hari Kiran, Founder Indic Academy said “ I have been interacting with Aparna for over a year now. She has been instrumental in initiating several initiatives in the field of arts for which Indica extended support by way of grants. She has opened new leads to preserve and promote our Culture, a third and important vertical that Indica is focussed on, in its mission to build a global renaissance. We are excited about her joining our team and look forward to leveraging on her expertise, experience and engaging her with various artists in India and Indophiles abroad.”
If you are an Indophile yourself, and/or know people working in areas related to Indian knowledge systems, art, music, and heritage, do reach out or request them to reach out to Aparna on her email: aparna@centerforsoftpower.org."
Srinivas Udumudi
Srinivas Udumudi is the director of Indic Academy, founded by well-known philanthropist thinker Harikiran Vadlamani. Indic Academy strives to bring to forefront and create conditions for blossoming of ancient Indian thought that has universal relevance and thus to the modern world. Indic Academy supports scholars and institutions which specialize in traditional Indian thought and are able to critique established intellectual architecture that underpins modern academic, political and social institutions today. Srinivas Udumudi works with various organizations and scholars in designing courses and workshops on various aspects of Indian thought. He is also the Member of the Editorial Advisory Board at Indic Today.
Srinivas is the Hyderabad chapter coordinator for Indic Book Club, a sister organization of Indic Academy which has emerged as the sole goto organization worldwide which supports writers who write on subjects based on Indic civilizational thought and values. Srinivas Udumudi heads India’s premier genetics and genomics research and services organization based out of Hyderabad. Srinivas did his B.Tech in Computer Science from REC Warangal (now NIT) and Masters in CS (Artificial Intelligence) in the US, and has over 25 years of industry experience. He has deep interest in carnatic music, Indian philosophy, Western continental philosophy, and intellectual history of India and the world.
Abhinav Agarwal
Abhinav Agarwal is a technology professional with over twenty years of experience working in India, Canada, and the US in business intelligence, analytics, big data, Warehouse Management systems, e-commerce applications and more. He is a Member of the Editorial Advisory Board at Indic Today.
Abhinav is the technical editor of a McGraw-Hill book, runs a blog with two-million page views, and has delivered guest lectures at management institutes on analytics and governance. He has spoken at conferences across four continents and also delvers workshops on technology, career planning, and management practices. Abhinav is a post-graduate from the Indian Institute of Management, Bangalore, and holds a bachelor’s degree in Computer Engineering.
Nithin Sridhar
Nithin Sridhar has a degree in Civil Engineering, and having worked in construction field, Nithin passionately writes about various issues from development, politics, and social issues, to religion, spirituality and ecology. He is the Consulting Editor at Indic Today.
Nithin is also the Editor of IndiaFacts & Advaita Academy and is based in Mysore, India. His latest book “Musings On Hinduism” provides an overview of various aspects of Hindu philosophy and society.
Rekha Dhar
Rekha Dhar holds an honors degree in Engineering from the University of Mumbai.
She has deep interest in Indian philosophies, indigenous Indic traditions and value systems. She is currently a part of the editorial team at Indic Today.
Always eager to learn something new, her simple philosophy in life is that it is never too late to start doing what you realize you love; after all butterflies are reminders that time is inconsequential to beautiful metamorphosis.
An avid reader and fitness enthusiast, she is currently based in Bangalore, India.
Vemuri Arun Kumar
Vemuri Arun Kumar, is a marketing communication professional with over two decades of experience across advertising, education and IT industries. At present he is working with Google in Singapore. Writing is his passion, and while he had run a tongue-in-cheek HR blog and wrote over 100 episodes for Channel V in his salad days; his passion and current vocation is writing micropoems extensively in his mother tongue Telugu. He has written over 4000 micropoems, published a compilation of some of those poems into a book "Vakkelli", and is in the process of publishing a second poems book on Mahabharata and Ramayana. He also penned lyrics for couple of Telugu Movies. In his spare time, he likes to play chess!
Dr. Arvind Kaushik
Dr. Arvind Kaushik has completed his PhD in Philosophy and Religious Studies from University of Pardubice, Czech Republic. Arvind Kaushik's research interests lie in the domain of culture and religion within Tamil Nadu. His dissertation focuses on the relationship between Saiva Siddhanta and the intellectual roots of Tamil nationalism. Arvind Kaushik completed his PhD under the supervision of Professor Martin Farek, whose specialization is in the field of Vaishnavism. He also completed a research internship in Ghent University, Belgium, under the supervision of Professor Jakob De Roover, who has done extensive research on Secularism in India and its roots in Protestant Christianity.
Arvind Kaushik received his intellectual training under the research program known as the Comparative Science of Cultures started by S.N. Balagangadhara, a former (now retired) professor at Ghent University. This research program studies Western culture against the backdrop of Indian culture.
Smitha H S
Smitha H S joins as a curator at Indica Today. She is also in charge of the Kannada and Sanskrit Sections. Smitha holds degrees in Engineering, Law, and Sanskrit. Since her childhood days, she has been passionate about understanding भारत, संस्कृत and संस्कृति in depth. After an eight-year stint, each in the IT and legal profession, Smitha discovered joy in writing during the covid pandemic and since, has a few published works to her credit in the Indic space. She has been actively contributing to Indica Today since 2020. She is currently pursuing MA in Nyaya and Vaisheshika. She writes in Kannada and English and hopes to write in fluent Sanskrit someday.
Published Works in English : Kalāyogi Ananda Coomaraswamy published by Kuvempu Bhasha Bharati Pradhikara , BWW Bangalore Anthology published by Atta Galatta,
Published Works in Kannada: Vishwasāhiti Bhyrappa by Sahitya Bhandara, Bhārtiya Shikshana Parampare Ondu Marunota by Ayodhya Publication (To be published in 2024)
Additionally, Smitha has copy-edited and worked on the final manuscripts of a few published works including, The Rishi Tradition of Bharat by Dr. Sampadananda Mishra (Subbu Publications) and Samana Nagarika Samhite by Samanvita.