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
Aparna M Sridhar joins as 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.
Welcoming her to her new responsibility, Hari Kiran, Founder Indic Academy said “ I have been interacting with Aparna for over a year now. She has been instrumental in initiating several initiatives in the field of arts for which Indica extended support by way of grants. She has opened new leads to preserve and promote our Culture, a third and important vertical that Indica is focussed on, in its mission to build a global renaissance. We are excited about her joining our team and look forward to leveraging on her expertise, experience and engaging her with various artists in India and Indophiles abroad.”
If you are an Indophile yourself, and/or know people working in areas related to Indian knowledge systems, art, music, and heritage, do reach out or request them to reach out to Aparna on her email: aparna@centerforsoftpower.org."