ARUNA DASGUPTA
Journalist / Consultant

Country Advisor, India, University of South Florida, since 2011. Longstanding professional editor, writer and consultant, including as senior editor of SPAN magazine and Country Program Coordinator, American Embassy, New Delhi for over 20 years.

PROF. GIRIJA PANDE
Professor

Historian and scholar of Himalayan studies. With a passion for visual documentation of nature, culture, society and environment of Himalayas. Presently Professor & Director, Social Sciences, Uttarakhand Open University.

Dr. SHARMILA LAL
Medical Practitioner and Spiritual Aspirant

Practising gynaecologist for 40 years, with special attention to low-income groups. Engaged in a self-driven at-home-serviced elder care project in New Delhi. Spiritually inclined and long associated and engaged with the Ramakrishna Sharda Mission, Pangot (Uttarakhand) and New

P D VALSON
Technical Director, Sound Technologist

Professional Sound recordist and engineer for over 30 plus years, with specialization in location recording. Freelancer for fiction / documentaries / events / news and current affairs programs, including award-winning films like the Emmy in 1996. Technical Team Head for film festivals, including PSBT’s Open Frame and the Lakeside Doc Festival.

TANUSHREE SENGUPTA
Transmedia Communication Professional

Tanushree Sengupta began her career as a Video Editor and Executive Producer with Television films, and went on to developing content for web and print media as a freelance consultant. Tanushree has worked at the Press section of the German Embassy in New Delhi, and subsequently led communication teams at GIZ and the Population Foundation of India. She currently works as an independent media consultant.

SANDEEP BHATT
Media Professional, Teacher, Mentor

Faculty Member, Department of Media and Mass Communication, Graphic Era Hill University, Dehradun. Field experience of 20 years in Electronic Media, especially TV news feature and documentary while associated with Public Service Broadcasting Trust (PSBT), Spotfilms TV News & Feature Agency and Formedia.

YAGNA BALAJI
CEO, Editor, Communications Professional

Journalist spanning two decades in the field. Seasoned communications professional, recipient of awards for articles on developmental journalism, promoter of ethical journalism for aspiring media persons. Launched the Deccan Chronicle newspaper in Tamil Nadu in 2005, Tamil Nadu’s first tabloid, Chennai Chronicle. In 2015, Founder-Editor of DT Next, city-focussed newspaper, DT Next, in Chennai. Since 2021, CEO at DT Next.

VIJAY KUTTY
Documentary film-maker, Biker

Documentary filmmaker and photographer working largely on development-based films for NGOs, INGOs and funding agencies. A flair for Hindi, English, Malayalam and Tamil provide great entry points for filming in local communities. Loves his dark chocolate, Royal Enfield, cryptic crosswords, gin & tonic, badminton, Kishore Kumar and his flavour of black coffee.

NEELIMA MATHUR
Executive Producer, Trainer, Columnist, Festival Director

Researcher, writer, executive producer for documentaries. Specialising as Audio-visual Strategist, Development Communicator, Trainer and Mentor for Documentary and NGO films and the UNESCO Curriculum on Media & Information Literacy. Columnist for daily English newspapers in India. Currently Festival Director for the Lakeside Doc Festival of international documentaries in Uttarakhand, India. As well as Executive & Project Director for Utsah Toli, a Community Cultural Centre in the same semi-rural area, addressing school-going children for targetted personality enrichment.

REETI MATHUR
Consultant, Editor & Writer, Grassroot Worker

Non-profit professional since 2004, with a decade of grassroots work experience in the social sector. Specific programme implementation and monitoring & evaluation of HIV prevention programs for high risk populations, women and children and Transgender communities. Freelance copy editor on social subjects. Consultant for proposal writing, program development and grant research for Indian, U.S., Thai and African organisations. Founder, Social Content Corner, 2022, a platform creating narratives on human resilience for social impact organisations. Continues to volunteer with non-profits.

VARUN MATHUR
Film-maker, Artist

Cameraman, Field Producer, Writer/Director, primarily in documentary, for multiple national and international productions since 2004. Extensive travel in India and abroad to over one hundred filming locations, including in Europe, western and South Africa. Core Concept Team for the fiction feature film, ‘The Owner', co-operatively written and directed by 19 global directors following a backpack around the world. Qualifications and interests centre around critical theory, cultural theory, indigenous belief systems, mythologies, narrative building, making music and painting.