Research Analyst

Program Manager

Program Manager – SMaRT

Advisor – SMaRT

Director – SMaRT

Executive Director
Praful Shankar is a Political Consultant with extensive experience in election campaigns across India. Prior to entering the political consulting space, he worked in the corporate sector for over a decade. He is also an occasional columnist for Swarajya Magazine and tweets are @shankarpraful.

Director- SMaRT
Director of Riverbridge, a boutique Investment banking firm.

Founder and chairman

Mandar has more than 15 years of entrepreneurship experience. He is heading OrangeWit Consulting, an Industrial Automation and IOT company, that he co-founded in 2017. He is an avid reader with an interest in Indian history and culture. He likes to travel and is fascinated by heritage places. Playing Bridge keeps him busy during his spare time.

Puranika Narayana Bhatta is leading a technology company in Bengaluru. He has worked in multiple roles around the world, in his career. He writes on topics of technology, finance and Samskrita.

Columnist, TV Panelist, PhD on RSS

Dr. Shirish Kashikar, Director of the national institute of mass communication and journalism, Ahmedabad has a career in Journalism & academics spanning over 23 years. After completing his Masters in English literature, he completed his Masters’s in Mass Communication and Journalism with the first rank in Saurashtra University. He started his career as a reporter cum sub-editor in Desh Pardesh ni Aajkal, an evening daily from Rajkot in 1996. Two years later he moved on to the state information department as an Information Officer. Dr. Kashikar was bestowed with the best article writer’s award by the State Information Department in 2002-03. As an academician, he has taught in the journalism department of Saurashtra University as a visiting faculty. He has presented papers on various subjects related to modern Mass Communication and the history of Journalism. He is a member of the Academic Council of Gujarat University and a Member of the Planning Board of IGNOU. He is also a vice-chairman of the Education Task Force of Gujarat chamber of commerce. He regularly participates in national and regional news channel’s Political & Social debates.

Vipul Kocher is an ex-Adobe engineer and IIT alumnus with 25-year experience in Software Development and Testing industry. He runs a few software companies and is the national convenor of Indic Academy. He is interested in all aspects Indic. He lives in NOIDA and dreams of going back to Jodhpur.

Mayank Jain, a filmmaker and writer, 55, a passionate filmmaker of 25 years standing has made more than 50 films on a wide range of subjects which have received wide appreciation from his audiences. He is at present working on a series of films and a book on the governance model of a prominent Chief Minister.
He rose to prominence with his film, ‘India Tomorrow – – The Gujarat Miracle’ in 2007 in which he showcased the then CM Shri Narendra bhai Modi’s unique model of governance. This film was released by the then President of BJP, Shri Rajnath Singh and the Late Shri Arun Jaitley at the BJP headquarters in Delhi in Oct, 2007. This film received wide publicity in leading newspapers and media channels all over India. He also worked as the Content Head of ‘NaMo TV’ during the 2012 Gujarat elections.
He has sensitively handled the issues of agriculture, development, national security, nutrition and health in his films. He has produced and directed television programmes on a wide range of topics, under various banners.
Produced an investigative 90-minute documentary on national security: ‘The Bangla Crescent – ISI, Madrasas & Infiltration’, which was released to the national press by senior IPS officers: Shri KPS Gill, Shri Prakash Singh and Shri RK Ohri in New Delhi in 2005.
Produced, scripted and directed the famous film: ‘India Tomorrow – The Gujarat Miracle’, which showcases the development story of Gujarat along with Gujarat ’s fight against terrorism. More than one million people have watched this film on internet throughout the world.
He produced a series of films on the Gujarat Model: Gujarat Fast Track, Gujarat Tomorrow, Team Gujarat, Gujarat Ahead, No to Terror etc. for the 2012 Gujarat elections.
He produced a film on the development model of Chhattisgarh in 2008. He also dealt with the subject of Naxalites and their victims in this film.
His film, ‘The Evidence—Meat Kills’ was released to the national press at the Press Club of India, New Delhi in Sep, 2017 by Shrimati Maneka Gandhi.
Mayank has conceptualized, scripted and directed a variety of documentaries, current affairs programmes and crime serials for such prestigious channels as Zee TV, Doordarshan and SAB TV.
As ‘Content Advisor’ for the popular current affairs programme ‘Khula Manch’ (SAB TV), Mayank Jain provided content for more than 175 episodes.
He extensively covered Indian elections and participated in the Exit Polls on Doordarshan in the Lok Sabha Elections of 1999 and assembly elections of 2000 (Jain TV).
He produced, directed and scripted a series of 14 episodes of ‘Chunavi Maidan’ for SAB TV for the Lok Sabha elections of 2004. These 25-minute investigative stories became popular because of their unique treatment and style.
He directed weekly programmes such as ‘India’s Most Wanted’ and ‘Nishan’.
He scripted and directed a 10-episode series of health awareness documentaries titled ‘Death Warrant’ for Doordarshan. The episodes covered topics such as tobacco abuse, alcohol abuse, drug addiction, anxiety, HIV-AIDS, food adulteration, obesity, spurious medicines, electrical safety and quackery (2004).
He conceptualized, scripted and directed several documentaries for the Indira Gandhi National Open University (IGNOU).
He directed two 22-minute documentaries on TB and on HIV-AIDS for the Leprosy Mission.
He produced and directed a number of awareness films on the subject of leprosy eradication.
Jain also scripted the widely appreciated documentary ‘Quacks – Doctors or Killers’ for PSBT.
He has handled many prestigious assignments including the production of a film on the Hindi language for the Ministry of External Affairs.
Jain is passionately committed to eradication of the scourge of ‘untouchability’ and has studied the subject in depth. He is currently directing a documentary on the unification of castes. He is passionate about finding a solution to the challenges faced by ‘safai karmacharis’. The film hopes to present a blueprint for a radical reform of this social evil.

D V Sridharan born in 1942, was a marine engineer by profession. He is currently devoted to a land restoration project south of Chennai. He is the author of “Good News India: Ordinary Indians ~ Extraordinary Triumphs’

Nageswara Rao is a former-interim Director officer Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) in 2019 . He joined CBI in 2016 and is an Indian Police Service (IPS) officer of 1986 batch and Odisha cadre.

Sandipan Deb is an independent journalist and writer. He has been Editor of The Financial Express, Managing Editor of Outlook, and Founder-Editor of Outlook Money, Open and Swarajya magazines. He is the author of several books, including The IITians: How an Indian Institution and Its Alumni Are Reshaping the World; Fallen Angel: The Making and Unmaking of Rajat Gupta; and Telecom Man; and editor of Momentous Times, a volume to commemorate 175 years of The Times of India. He is an alumnus of IIT Kharagpur and IIM Calcutta.

An author. He is into technology, management professional and data guru.

Janani Sampath is a former journalist with over 15 years of experience in the field. She opted for the field, in awe of the power of the pen, and pursued stories that have a direct bearing on society— mainly in the areas of health, social welfare, and social issues. While she has taken a break from her first passion — journalism– she still shares a keen interest in understanding media trends and strongly wishes that the fourth estate reformed. Her interests vary from reading, writing, music, movies to history and Hinduism. Of late, she is focusing on understanding the accurate history of ancient India.

Dr. Mrittunjoy Guha Majumdar is a postdoctoral fellow at Tata Institute of Fundamental Research, and has actively been working with Nobel Laureate Prof. Brian Josephson. He is also collaborating with groups at IISc Bangalore and Bose Institute. He has recently won an InSc Research Excellence Award and has been a 35 under 35 UK India Young Leaders 2018.
He completed his PhD from Cambridge University at the age of 25. He has been a four time student leader of Cambridge University and has also delivered popular science talks on fora such as the national Indian broadcaster – Doordarshan. He has been active in undertaking social work and activism, having been president of Sakhya – Cambridge Friends of India, collaborating with Pratham and Amnesty International, and having funded the education of a girl child from Varanasi using his scholarship money during his doctoral studies.
He has also previously worked as an intern at the Ministry of Human Resource Development, Government of India to look at innovative ways to improve teaching and learning in school education. He is a prolific writer and commentator on social, political, philosophical and scientific topics, with essays and writings published in international journals such as the International Journal of Politics and Good Governance and in popular fora such as Youth Ki Awaaz, Swarajya, Opindia and Organiser.

Dr. Monica Verma is a former journalist and a PhD in International Relations from South Asian University, New Delhi. SAU is an international university set up by SAARC nations. Her research focusses on India’s external security challenges and politics of South Asia. She is interested in the pursuit of research related to India’s national security where India is not only a country but a centuries old civilisation whose time of rise and resurgence is now.

Krishna Kumar Murugan is Social, economic and political observer. Part time blogger and full time working professional. He feels that there is abundance of data in this world but is left uninterpreted. When time permits he does fact finding on fake mirages created by Dravidian parties.

Krithika Sivaswamy is a Chennai based Entrepreneur.  She is also a   bharatanatyam Dancer and a History enthusiast. Hailing from a family of Shrautis, Adhvaryus ,Cassical Arts connoisseurs and artists, she is privileged to have an early exposure to this rich culture. She attempts to bring to the mainstream, the glory of Tamil Nadu in specific , its exquisite temple heritage, ancient vedic traditions, fine arts and the dangers it’s facing today.  Looking at bold traditional women at home , her kindled curiosity led her towards understanding feminism from a Bharatiya perspective. She engages herself in understanding ancient Indian maths in her pass time. She is also an animal lover, feeds strays & voices out support for wildlife and habitat conservation.