Prannoy Roy
Prannoy Lal Roy (born 15 October 1949) is an Indian journalist and psephologist, who is the co-founder and executive co-chairperson of New Delhi Television (NDTV) along with his wife Radhika Roy. He won the Red Ink award by Mumbai Press Club for lifetime achievement for his consistent and pioneering contribution to news television and his service to journalism in 2015.
Roy was a consultant for a few years at Price Waterhouse in India. He is a TV / digital journalist in India, an author and a professional British Chartered Accountant and Economist. He has been the lead anchor for election analysis and budget specials on India's national television network Doordarshan and for BBC World News' Question Time India.
In 1988, Roy, along with his journalist wife Radhika, launched a television production house called New Delhi Television. On Doordarshan, he hosted news programs "The News Tonight" and "The World This Week." He also started India's first 24-hour English news channel NDTV 24x7.
He has been an Economic Advisor in the Indian government's Ministry of Finance and an associate professor at the Delhi School of Economics. He has also been a consultant to the India division of international accountancy firm PricewaterhouseCoopers.
In 2009 Roy was one of two Indians serving on the International Advisory Board of Council on Foreign Relations in Washington.
He has co-authored A Compendium of Indian Elections and India Decides: Elections 1952–1991 with David Butler.
The CBI filed a criminal conspiracy case against NDTV managing director Roy in 1998, alleging fraud. In July 2013, Roy and NDTV were cleared by the courts and found not-guilty of all charges involving cases filed against Roy by the CBI under Section 120-B of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) for criminal conspiracy and under the Prevention of Corruption Act.
Salman Rushdie
Sir Ahmed Salman Rushdie (born 19 June 1947) is an Indian-born British American novelist and essayist. His work, combining magical realism with historical fiction, is primarily concerned with the many connections, disruptions, and migrations between Eastern and Western civilizations, with much of his fiction being set on the Indian subcontinent.
His second novel, Midnight's Children (1981), won the Booker Prize in 1981 and was deemed to be "the best novel of all winners" on two occasions, marking the 25th and the 40th anniversary of the prize. His fourth novel, The Satanic Verses (1988), was the subject of a major controversy, provoking protests from Muslims in several countries. Death threats were made against him, including a fatwa calling for his assassination issued by Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, the Supreme Leader of Iran, on 14 February 1989. The British government put Rushdie under police protection.
In 1983, Rushdie was elected a fellow of the Royal Society of Literature, the UK's senior literary organisation. He was appointed Commandeur de l'Ordre des Arts et des Lettres of France in January 1999. In June 2007, Queen Elizabeth II knighted him for his services to literature. In 2008, The Times ranked him thirteenth on its list of the 50 greatest British writers since 1945.
Since 2000, Rushdie has lived in the United States. He was named Distinguished Writer in Residence at the Arthur L. Carter Journalism Institute of New York University in 2015. Earlier, he taught at Emory University. He was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Letters. In 2012, he published Joseph Anton: A Memoir, an account of his life in the wake of the controversy over The Satanic Verses.