Ruchika Soi is an art and travel writer and an art curator

AR Rahman is a music composer, singer and songwriter

Rakeysh Omprakash Mehra is a filmmaker and has directed, among other films, Rang De Basanti

Beena Sarwar is a Pakistan-born and Boston-based journalist, peace activist and documentary filmmaker

The author is an award-winning novelist, essayist and short-story writer based in Moscow

The writer is Associate Professor and Head of the Department of Pediatric Hematology-Oncology, Post-Graduate Institute of Child Health, Noida. She serves as the honorary secretary of the Pediatric Hematology-Oncology Chapter of Indian Academy of Paediatrics, the largest body of medical care providers for children with blood diseases and cancers in the country. The views expressed by her are personal

Manish Nandy, a former US diplomat and World Bank official, is an international development advisor

Gautam Bhatia is a Delhi-based architect and the author of Delirious City, a satire on Indian urban life

Ram Gopal Varma is the director of ground-breaking films such as Satya and Company

DPK Pillay, a retired colonel of the Indian Army, is a research fellow at the Manohar Parrikar Institute of Defence Studies and Analyses. A recipient of the Shaurya Chakra, he served in the Northeast

Shahid Amin is a Delhi-based historian whose books include Event, Metaphor, Memory: Chauri Chaura 1922-1992

Tarana Husain Khan is a food writer and cultural historian. She is the author of The Begum and the Dastan

The author is electronics & IT secretary, Government of Odisha

Gopalkrishna Gandhi, a former diplomat and governor, is the son of Devadas Gandhi and the grandson of Mahatma Gandhi

Jishnu Das is a professor at Georgetown University, US, and a visiting senior fellow at Centre for Policy Research, Delhi

Shyam Saran is a former Foreign Secretary of India