Veena S Rao is a retired officer of the Indian Administrative Service of the 1972 batch, Karnataka Cadre, with a distinguished career in Karnataka and Government of India. She retired as Secretary to Government of India, Ministry for the Development of the North Eastern Region. She is a post-graduate in Political Science from the University of Jammu and Kashmir, and in Development Studies from the University of Cambridge, UK. Before joining the IAS, she taught Political Science in Mount Carmel College, Bangalore.
She is an expert on development issues and governance, particularly malnutrition, and writes extensively on the subject in national and international publications, including British Medical Journal. She is presently leading the Karnataka Comprehensive Nutrition Mission, and with the support of the World Bank/Japan Social Development Fund, she has just completed piloting a unique inter-generational, inter-sectoral strategy, advocated by her, to combat malnutrition and micronutrient deficiency in two of the most backward Blocks in Karnataka, Devadurga in Raichur District and Chincholli in Kalaburgi District, with very successful results. Malnutrition and micronutrient deficiency among the inter-generational target groups, namely children, adolescent girls, and women has reduced appreciably. Ms Veena Rao is presently engaged with the Government of Karnataka in replicating this strategy in the most chronic malnutrition areas of Karnataka.
Veena Rao works closely with the Government of Karnataka, the World Bank, Global Alliance for Improved Nutrition, and the Institute of Development Studies, Sussex, UK. Her pioneering work in addressing India's malnutrition can be seen in
www.karnutmission.org
Her first work of fiction, ‘Charlotte’s End’ inspired by Daphne du Maurier’s “Rebecca” was published in 2016.
"The Tale of Quarles, the Prince who Fails", a play written by her in Shakespearean verse about the sad Charles Diana marriage, has been staged very successfully by Pierrot’s Troupe, led by Dr Sayeed Alam.
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Books
1) CHARLOTTE’S END
2) THE ASURAS OF ANTARIKSH
Arunendra Nath Verma enjoys adding the spice of variety to make life delightfully savoury. A science student initially, he switched over to humanities for graduation. Then he changed course in 1961 to join the National Defence Academy and got commissioned in the Flying Navigator Branch of Indian Air Force in 1965. His interest in diverse fields later led to an MBA degree from Madras University besides a law degree from Delhi University. Notwithstanding an enviable track record of flying four Presidents and Prime Minister Indira Gandhi for almost nine years in the VIP Squadron, and postgraduating in Defence studies from the Defence Services Staff College, he chose to hang his flying boots prematurely when the entrepreneurial bug bit him. In 1987 he set up an industrial unit at Noida to which he added two more in the next ten years. All this without any prior experience or family background. And yet he chose to prove himself in a totally tangential field by disposing of his thriving business in 2014 and settled down to satisfy his creative urge as a writer.
Within an year his first English novel, The Loophole, was published by Vitasta Publishing . To this were added five more books within next six years dedicated to writing. His short stories, satires, travelogues, middles and articles on a wide variety of subjects regularly appear in a large number of reputed magazines and national newspapers. What is really intriguing is his prowess to write both in English and Hindi. Vitasta published his short story collection “ Echoes From The Sky: Tales from the Air Force” in 2019. His Hindi books published by reputed publishers include a novel, two short story collections and a travelogue. The seventh one, a collection of satirical short stories is under publication.
The unusual variety in his writing comes from writing in both English and Hindi languages and his wide experience in diverse fields like aviation, the Armed Forces, industry and the world of letters as much as from his wide and varied interests that range from traveling, golfing, singing and attending musical concerts to watching movies and partying. He is a man who in the platinum year of his life is intent on living it up to the hilt. A born extrovert, he would love to establish close dialogue with his readers.
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Books
1) ECHOES FROM THE SKY - TALES FROM THE AIR FORCE
_220x320.jpg "India’s Nuclear Titans : Biographical Tales")
_220x320.jpg "Nobody's Grandmother: Stories from inside an Elderly Home")
