Times Litfest Delhi 2017: Opening Ceremony

He was awarded the International Grand Prix of the Blue Metropolis Festival.

He is the Director of the King's India Institute and Professor of Politics.

Wendy Doniger is one of the world's most influential scholars of Hinduism.

Dr. Aslan, an internationally acclaimed writer and scholar of religions.

She is a writer, physician, secular humanist and human rights activist.

Amish is an IIM (Kolkata)-educated boring banker turned happy author.

He is the author of five novels, the latest of which is The Immortals.

Fatima Bhutto is the author of four books which includes poems and a novel.

Yogi, mystic, and visionary, he is a spiritual master with a difference.

Anuja Chauhan is an advertiser and author of four romantic comedies.

Shobhaa De is a prolific writer - author, blogger, columnist.

Dipankar Gupta has researched on a number of themes including Shiv Sena.

William Dalrymple is a bestselling author.

Mark Tully was the Chief of Bureau, BBC, New Delhi, for twenty-two years.

P Chidambaram is former Finance Minister of India and member of INC.

Arun Jaitley has authored several publications on legal and current affairs.

Rajdeep Sardesai is the author of '2014: The Election That Changed India'.

Salman Khurshid is former external affairs minister and a member of INC.

Gandhi wrote his first volume of poems 'The Otherness of Self' in 2000.

Karan Thapar is an eminent Indian television anchor and journalist.

He has written books on military history war and Sikh history.

Boo is an American journalist who has won great acclaim for her writings.

Hanif has written plays, screenplays for BBC drama and a feature film.

Kiran Nagarkar has written various plays, screenplays and novels.

Arvind Panagariya is the Vice-Chairman of Niti Aayog of India.

Robin Jeffrey is a professor and co-author of Cell Phone Nation (2013).

She is John Hawkes Professor of Humanities and English at Browne University.

She has established herself as an accessible historian of Indian antiquity.

Upmanyu has written best-selling novel, English, August: An Indian story.

Namita has written novels, short stories, and other non-fiction books.

Boria Majumdar is an acclaimed sport historian, writer and journalist.

He is winner of The Hindu Literary Prize and American PEN/Open Book award.

Pattanaik is a renowned author, mythologist, and leadership consultant.

Ashwin Sanghi is a writer who has been hailed as the Indian Dan Brown.

Ravi is numero uno thriller writer, having written six bestselling books.

Tansen Sen serves on the Governing Board of the Nalanda University.

Siddharth Varadarajan is an award-winning journalist and Founder of The Wire.

Malvika Singh is a publisher of Seminar and a columnist for The Telegraph.

Ananya Vajpeyi works is writing a life of Dr. B R Ambedkar.

Twinkle Khanna is an interior designer and columnist for The Times of India.

He is the author of Farthest Field: An Indian Story of the 2nd World War.

Ambassador Rakesh Sood is a Post Graduate in Physics and additionally in Economics and Defence studies. He has over 36 years of experience in the field of foreign affairs, economic diplomacy and international security issues. Before joining the Indian Foreign Service in 1976, Ambassador Sood worked for a couple of years in the private sector. Ambassador Sood initially served in the Indian missionsat Brussels, Dakar, Geneva and Islamabad in different capacities and as Deputy Chief of Mission in Washington, later in his career. He set up the Disarmament and International Security Affairs Division in the Foreign Ministry, which he led for eight years till the end of 2000.During this period, Ambassador Sood was in charge for multilateral disarmament negotiations, bilateral dialogues with Pakistan, strategic dialogues with other countries including US, UK, France and Israel (especially after the nuclear tests in 1998), and dealt with India's role in the ASEAN Regional Forum, as part of the 'look East' policy. He then served as India's first Ambassador - Permanent Representative to the Conference on Disarmament at the United Nations in Geneva. He also chaired a number of international Working Groups including those relating to negotiations on landmines and cluster munitions and was a member of UN Secretary General's Disarmament Advisory Board (2002-03). Subsequently, he was India's Ambassador to Afghanistan from 2005 to early 2008, Ambassador to Nepal from 2008 to 2011 and to France from 2011 to March 2013. In September 2013, Ambassador Sood was appointed Special Envoy of the Prime Minister for Disarmament and Non-Proliferation Issues; a position he held till May 2014. Since his retirement he has been writing and commentating regularly in both print and audio visual media on India's foreign policy, its economic dimensions and regional &international security issues. He is a frequent speaker/contributor at various policy planning groups and reputed think-tanks in India and overseas.

Rosalyn D'Mello is a widely published freelance art writer based in New Delhi. Her debut non-fiction title, A Handbook For My Lover will be released in November 2015 by Harper Collins. Her art reviews and features have been published in Art + Auction, Modern Painters, Passages, Art India, Take on Art. She is a regular contributor to Vogue, Open, Mint Lounge, Art Review, Art Review Asia. She was the associate editor of The Art Critic, a 600+ page selection of the art writings of Richard Bartholomew, from the 50s to the early '80s. She was among five writers nominated for Forbes' Best Emerging Art Writer Award in 2014 and was also nominated for the inaugural Prudential Eye Art Award for Best Writing on Asian Contemporary Art in 2014.