India Travel Insights - Insight Interviews

	Vithal Kamat is Executive Chairman and Managing Director of Kamat Hotels India Ltd. Kamat has won numerous environmental awards for his properties, notably his flagship brand, The Orchid and is active in Mumbai where he has helped plant 100,000 trees.
	Simone Ahuja is the principal and founder of Blood Orange Media and the director/producer of Indique – Untold Stories of Contemporary India, a travel series airing in the US and internationally.
	Misty Dhillon is Managing Partner of The Himalayan Outback, which specializes in fishing, fly-fishing, white water rafting and trekking. He has guided expeditions on most rivers in the Indian Himalayas.
	William Klippgen is Executive Director of the venture firm, BAF Spectrum, and sits on the board of iXiGO.com, an Indian travel search engine. He was a Fulbright Scholar at Boston University and has an MBA from INSEAD.
	Kodiyeri Balakrishnan is the Minister for Home, Vigilance and Tourism for the state of Kerala. He is a member of CPI (M) Polit Bureau and State Secretariat and is also CPI (M) Parliamentary Party Deputy Leader.
	Brendan I. Koerner is the author of Now the Hell Will Start, for which his research took him through India's Northeast states. He is also a contributing editor at Wired and a columnist for both Slate and Gizmodo.
	Shushmul Maheshwari is Chief Executive of RNCOS E-Services Pvt. Ltd, a market research and information analysis company based in Delhi. Among RNCOS's reports are those on travel and tourism in India.
	Atul Khekade is the Chief Executive Officer at AIRNETZ Aviation Pvt. Ltd, an air charter services company. He was nominated by BusinessWeek online as one of the top entrepreneurs in Asia under 25 in 2006.
	Deborah Baker is the author of A Blue Hand: The Beats in India. Her essays have appeared in a range of publications, from The New York Times to the Calcutta Statesman.
	Suvir Saran is co-executive chef at Dévi restaurant in New York and is the author of two widely acclaimed cookbooks: Indian Home Cooking and American Masala: 125 New Classics From My Home Kitchen.
	Capt. C. P. Krishnan Nair is Chairman of The Leela Palaces, Hotels & Resorts, with properties in Mumbai, Goa, Bangalore and Kovalam. He has won the Prime Minister’s National Tourism Award among others.
	Julian Crandall Hollick has created radio documentaries about India for NPR, BBC Radio 4 and World Service, the CBC and ABC (Australia). He is the author of Ganga: A Journey Down the Ganges River.
	Noël Gama is the author of Culture Wise India: The Essential Guide to Culture, Customs & Business Etiquette and is the winner of The Writers Bureau's "Writer of the Year 2007" award.
	Prakriti Malhotra co-founded GapGuru, part of the FutureSense group, in 2004. GapGuru offers career, community and conservation volunteering opportunities in India.
	Tim Durham has been running Partnership Travel's "Colours of India" program since 1998. Based in London, the agency specializes in up-market, tailored travel to India and the Islands of the Indian Ocean.
	Karthik J is the founder and tour organizer of Motorcycle Getaways – an adventure touring company that operates guided motorcycle tours in the Himalayas, Rajasthan and South India.
	Rajat Nagpal is the founder of TravelVidya.com, an initiative to make India's youth employable for the travel industry. Formerly he worked for JustFares.com and Bansi Tours and spearheaded corporate sales and operations for MakeMyTrip.
	Joe Bindloss is the author of more than 25 guidebooks for Lonely Planet including the latest editions of Lonely Planet India, Northeast India and Best of Mumbai.
	Rafiq Dossani is a senior research scholar at the Shorenstein Asia-Pacific Research Center at Stanford University, responsible for developing and directing the South Asia Initiative. His most recent book is India Arriving.
	Achal Mehra is the Managing Director in India for Voyages Television, an international tourism network. Previously, he was AXN's Deputy Director-Asia and was a senior NBC executive where he helped launch the National Geographic Channel.
	Susan Horner is a founder of the Centre for International Hospitality Management Research at Sheffield Hallam University. She is the author of Contemporary Hospitality and Tourism Management Issues in China and India.
	Ramachandra Guha has taught at Stanford Yale, the Indian Institute of Science and Cal-Berkeley. His writings have been translated into more than twenty languages. India After Gandhi: The History of the World's Largest Democracy is his latest book.
	Satveer Chaudhary is a Minnesota State Senator and part of the state's official trade delegation to India. In 2000, he became the first Asian-Indian senator in American history. NRI World named him one of the top 50 Non-Resident Indians in the world.
	Shenaz Treasuryvala has been a regular face on MTV Asia, hosted Culture Shock for the Travel Channel and starred in the popular Bollywood film, Ishq Vishk. She's written about her travels for magazines such as Elle, Cosmo and Femina.
	Deepak Singh is the president of Spiritual Journeys, a provider of custom and pre-packaged tours exploring spirituality and spiritual sites in India, Thailand and Cambodia.
	Mira Kamdar is an award-winning writer whose latest book is Planet India: How the Fastest-Growing Democracy is Transforming America and the World. She is Senior Fellow at the World Policy Institute and Associate Fellow of the Asia Society.
	John Sims is managing director of Himalayan Ski Village and is also part of the development team for the $250-million Mayapur Planetarium. Formerly, Sims was president of Club Indus, a division of Oberoi Hotels, and founded The SITA Group in Florida.
	Parita Chitakasem is Asia Pacific Travel and Tourism Manager at Euromonitor International, a leading independent provider of business intelligence on industries, countries and consumers.
	Vidur Kapur was selected as one of the top four Asian comics in North America. He has toured internationally and has been seen in international media. Originally from New Delhi, Kapur graduated from The London School of Economics.
	Simon Smith is the founder of the Global Enduro motorcycle and auto tours, including Enduro India, Enduro Himalaya and Karma Enduro. Each year, Enduro raises £500,000-£1,000,000 for charities.
	Raghavan Iyer is co-founder of the Asian Culinary Arts Institutes and the author of three Indian cookbooks. He is a culinary educator, spokesperson and consultant to numerous national and international clients.
	Manoj Gursahani is the founder and chairman of Travelmartindia.com, an e-commerce travel portal. Gursahani was the Founder Secretary of the Travel Agents Federation of India (TAFI).
	George Morgan-Grenville is president of Abercrombie & Kent, a luxury travel agency which moves 25,000 people a year. Under his guidance, A&K was named “World’s Best Tour Operator.”
	Franz Wisner is the author of the best-selling Honeymoon With My Brother. His travel articles have appeared in The San Francisco Chronicle, Los Angeles Times, ABC News on-line, and Coast Magazine.
	Gary Walther is editor in chief of Luxury SpaFinder. A veteran editor of luxury and travel publications, he headed Departures for 10 years, was a senior editor at Travel + Leisure, and launched Expedia Travels.
	Hari Nair is founder and CEO of HolidayIQ, an Indian travel and holiday information portal. He was previously a partner with KPMG India.
	Arun Bhat works in Bangalore but spends most of his free time traveling around India. He records his journeys on his Painted Stork blog, one of India's most popular travel blogs.
	Sheldon Santwan is the associate publisher and editor for two of India's leading travel industry magazines, Express Hospitality and Express TravelWorld.
	Robert Arnett is the author and photographer of the internationally acclaimed book India Unveiled that has won three national book awards.
	Arjun Nadkarni owns and manages the research and review site, CruisingIndia.com, as well as IndiaMike.com, one of the web's leading resources for those traveling to and around India.
	Colin Todhunter is a writer based in India and is the author of Chasing Rainbows in Chennai. Originally from England, he writes for the New Sunday Express and the Deccan Herald, two of India's largest English-language newspapers.
	Paul John's venture capital firm, Bloomingdale Investment Co., has interests in real estate, distilleries, silks and trading, with a focus on India. He is also the chairman of Kumarakom Lake Resort in Kerala.
	Sunil Sharma is the editor of Mood Indico, a publication for open-minded and inquisitive South Asians - people of Indian Subcontinent origin - living in North America.
	Tim Leffel is a veteran travel writer and value travel expert. He is editor of PerceptiveTravel.com and is the author of The World's Cheapest Destinations and Make Your Travel Dollars Worth a Fortune.