Team

Vijayalakshmi Vijayakumar

Vijayalakshmi Vijayakumar is the Director of CSP and the founder secretary of Heritage Parampara a not-for-profit trust. She has flown powered aircrafts, played state level softball, danced Bharatanatyam, given talks on culture and heritage, organized conferences, been on the Central Film and Censor Board, the National Advisory Board for Philately and is a freelance designer and copywriter too. Heritage trust conducts two annual well-known festivals, Gudiya Sambhrama and Srishti Sambhrama, the Earth Mother Festival. A third festival that premiered in 2018 was The Heritage Drive, a 1100 km motor sport rally that took participants to heritage temples and included tree planting as well. She loves story telling, her approach is creative and innovative. She is presently writing a novel based on historical events in India

Hari Kiran Vadlamani

Hari Kiran Vadlamani is a venture investor and social entrepreneur based out of Singapore. He is the founder of Indic Academy (IA), an institution that is seeking to build a renaissance based on Indic civilizational thought. Towards the mission, IA gives scholarships and grants, conducts workshops and programs and incubates networks and platforms. Passionate about art and culture, he is an active proponent of India's soft power and strongly believes that India can emerge as a soft super power by 2030. He advocates policy interventions involving the Indian diaspora that enable worldwide creation of jobs and establishment of cultural start ups.

Sudarshan Ramabadran

Sudarshan Ramabadran is currently the Deputy Director of India Foundation. He has graduated in Commerce from Chennai ( India) and later studied journalism from the Asian College of Journalism in India. He has previously worked with the New Indian Express ( a leading news daily) in Chennai & the Department of Information & Broadcasting, Government of Gujarat, Gandhi Nagar.  He has also served as a co-ordinator for All India Chinmaya Yuva Kendra, Global Youth Wing of Chinmaya Mission (Renowned Spiritual Organisation).  His interests are Security, Strategy & International Relations.

Rami Niranjan Desai

Rami Niranjan Desai is the Research Advisor with the Center for Soft Power, India Foundation. She has been associated with the India Foundation since 2008, with her focus area being Northeast India. Professionally, she runs a 3 decade plus textile business company and is fully committed to textile revivalism in India by tapping into India's indigenous crafts and designs.

 

 

Pavithra Srinivasan

Pavithra Srinivasan is a Research Fellow at India Foundation. A post graduate in Economics from Ethiraj College Chennai, she is an acclaimed Bharatanatyam artiste with several awards and has travelled  to many countries for performances and workshops. She recently inaugurated the cultural evening at World Hindu Congress 2018, Chicago and published a 15 episode series on Youtube on "Bhagavad Gita for the Children and the Young". She is the Founder/Teacher at Arsha Kala Bharati where she teaches Natya,Yoga and Vedic heritage.

 

Surendranath Chandranath

Surendranath Chandranath is a columnist and speaker on various topics relating to India’s History and specifically the traditional knowledge systems. 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.

Aparna M Sridhar

Aparna M Sridhar is 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.

 

Nithin Sridhar

Nithin Sridhar is an Author, Speaker, and Journalist based in Mysuru, India. He is currently the Editor of IndiaFacts, an online portal focussed on Indian history, culture and philosophy. He is also the Editor of Advaita Academy, an online initiative focussed on dissemination of authentic teachings of Advaita Vedanta. His first book “Musings on Hinduism” provides an overview of various aspects of Hindu philosophy. His latest book “Menstruation Across Cultures: A Historical Perspective” examines the cultural notions associated with Menstruation in India and across the world. He regularly writes columns on issues ranging from politics and society to religion and philosophy. He is now joining IndicToday as Consulting Editor – Indology.