P.N. Balji is a veteran Singapore journalist who has worked as the editor of two Singapore newspapers, The New Paper from 1990 to 2000, and TODAY from 2000 to 2003, where he was also the CEO. He has been a media consultant to the Singapore government’s Ministry of Home Affairs, and adjunct professor at Nanyang Technological University. He has recently published his memoirs, Reluctant Editor (Singapore: Marshall Cavendish).
Anjana Basu is the author of six novels. She has had a book of short stories published by Orient Longman; the BBC has broadcast one of her short stories, and her poems have featured in an anthology brought out by Penguin India. She has appeared in The Antigonish Review. The Edinburgh Review and The Salzburg Review have also featured her work. In 2003, Harper Collins India brought out her novel Curses in Ivory. In 2004, she was awarded a Hawthornden Castle Fellowship in Scotland where she worked on her second novel, Black Tongue, published by Roli in 2007. She has worked on the dialogues for the film, The Last Lear, directed by Rituparno Ghosh.
Ishani Dutta is currently pursuing her PhD at the Centre for Comparative Literature, Bhasha-Bhavana, Visva-Bharati, Bolpur, West Bengal. Her PhD project is, Of Recitals and Performances: Reading New Literary Trends and Genres in Contemporary Indian Nepali Poetry in the Darjeeling Hills and Sikkim (1980-Present). Her other areas of interest are Literature and Other Arts, Translation-in-Practice, Translation Theory and Literatures of Canada. She has previously served as a Project Fellow for ‘Project Anuvad’ under the UGC-University with Potential for Excellence Phase II: Cultural Resources & Social Sciences, Jadavpur University, Kolkata, from August 2017 to March 2019, and is currently working as a Project Assistant for the project, “Tagore in English: Essays of Decolonization,” under RUSA Phase 2.0 of Jadavpur University. She has authored the article, “Battling Heteropatriarchy: Re-visioning Binaries through the means of Adrienne Rich’s Radical Lesbian Feminism,” published in the Jadavpur Journal of Comparative Literature (JJCL): Volume 54. Her paper, “The ‘Unity and Diversity’ Problematic: A Critique of Comparative Literature in India,” is forthcoming in the 2017-19 issue of Sahitya: Volume 8 (Delhi and Kolkata: Comparative Literature Association of India).
Leng Sochea holds a PhD (2018) in Business Administration from Asia Europe University, Phnom Penh, Cambodia; as well as an MBA (2005) from the National University of Management; a Bachelor’s degree in Business Administration (2002) from the National Institute of Management; and a Bachelor of Law degree (1999) from the Royal University of Law and Economy, all located in Phnom Penh. His varied career began as a worker making fishing nets at a Khmer Rouge factory from 1975 to 1979. Currently he is an Adviser to the Chairman of the Cambodian National Election Committee since 2016, a rank equal to the Secretary General of the NEC. Concurrently, he is the Permanent Vice-Chairman of the Governing Council of the Cambodia Mine Action Centre, since 2013, ranking equal to a minister. He was the Vice Chairman of the Governing Council of the Cambodia Mine Action Centre from 2011-2012, and Deputy Secretary General of the Cambodia Mine Action Authority from 2000-2011. He attended the Senior Mine Action Management course at Cranefield Army University in the UK in 2002, a Law and Economics Awareness course at L’Ecole Royale Administration, as well as training courses at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Earlier, he was the Head of the Public Information Office and Spokesperson of the National Election Committee from 1998-2006, and a Deputy Director General at the Information Ministry from 1994-2000. He began a career in government working as a Department Director at the Media Centre of the Information Ministry from 1992-1994. Earlier he was a journalist for the Japanese newspaper, Mainichi Shimbun, in 1991-92, reporting on the United Nations Transitional Authority in Cambodia.
Ryan Mitra is an Intern at the Southern Division of the Indian Ministry of External Affairs. He is a Bachelor’s Student at Pandit Deendayal Petroleum University-School of Liberal Studies, majoring in International Relations. He has interned with the Research Centre for Eastern and North Eastern Regional Studies-Kolkata. His areas of interest are Indian foreign policy, maritime affairs, nuclear policy, and international law. His recent publications are: “India’s Persian Desire: Analysing India’s maritime trade strategy vis-à-vis the Port of Chabahar,” and “India’s Growing Maritime Opportunities with Indonesia: Room for development in Diplomacy and Capability Building,” both published in the Maritime Affairs Journal (National Maritime Foundation);“India’s Indo-Pacific Strategy: Understanding India’s Spheres of Influence,” in The Sigma Iota Rho (SIR) Journal of International Relations (University of Pennsylvania); “The Marriage of India’s Act East and Indo-Pacific Policy,” and “China in the Maldives:Understanding India’s Security Concerns,”in In the Long Run (blog of the Department of Politics and International Studies, University of Cambridge).