Madhav Das Nalapat
Madhav Das Nalapat (M.D. Nalapat) is an Indian academic and columnist. Currently Editorial Director of The Sunday Guardian and ITV Group,[1] Vice-Chair of Manipal University's Advanced Research Group, and Director of the Department of Geopolitics, Manipal University. He has been the Coordinating Editor of the Times of India and editor of the Mathrubhumi.
Nalapat writes extensively on security, policy and international affairs.[2]
Apart from his Sunday Guardian column, he is also regularly published in a very wide range of publications, including the Pakistan Observer.[3]
Personal
He was born to K. Madhava Das and the renowned English writer Kamala Surayya. Eldest of three brothers, Madhav is married to Lakshmi Bayi of the Royal House of Travancore.[4]
Nalapat is a Gold Medalist in economics from the University of Mumbai.
Career
Nalapat became Editor of the Mathrubhumi, a Malayalam-language newspaper in 1984. Nalapat had earlier been Editorial Director of the Mathrubhumi Group of publications, and previous to that (from 1978), Executive Director of the newspaper company. He continued on the board of directors throughout his tenure in the company.
In 1989 he shifted from Malayalam to English-language journalism, becoming the resident editor of Times of India at Bangalore. In 1994 he moved to Delhi as resident editor of the Times of India. He also worked as Chief of News Bureau in 1995–1997, before becoming contributing editor in end-1998 to concentrate on writing.
The next year, he merged journalism with academics, becoming India's first professor of geopolitics at Manipal University and a distinguished fellow of the University of Georgia. In the past, he has served on the academic councils of Thiruvananthapuram, Calicut and Bangalore universities.
He has contributed to leading publications throughout the world and has written six books, including INDUTVA whose central thesis is that every Indian is a synthesis of Vedic, Moghul and Western cultural DNA and religious exclusivism goes against such an ethos of fusion.
Apart from his work, he has played a key role in the literacy movement in Kerala, as the first honorary coordinator of the Kerala Association for Non-formal Education and Development. He was also the honorary secretary of the Kerala Children's Film Society, which screens educational films for children. He has also been active in environmental issues as honorary secretary of the Kerala Forestry Board, besides other NGOs. He has been active in actions designed to ensure that socially disadvantaged sections of Indian society were enabled to get better – if not equal – treatment, and has not diluted his secular vision of society, believing that the peoples of all faiths need to be given equal treatment in all lands.
The inspiration of the Editor's character in the Malayalam movie 'Vartha' can be traced to him and his short but rather controversial career at Mathrubhumi.
Current affiliations
- Editorial Director, Sunday Guardian and ITV Group
- Director of Department of Geopolitics, UNESCO Peace Chair, Manipal University
- Distinguished Fellow, CITS, The University of Georgia
- Member of the Advisory Council, Naveen Hindustan Foundation, New Delhi
- Advisor, Asianet Communications Ltd, Thiruvananthapuram
- Governing Body member, the Abdus Salam Foundation, London
- Life Member, Institute of Social & Economic Change, Bangalore
- Senior Associate, National Institute of Advanced Studies, Bangalore
- Advisory board member, Institute of Management, Meerut
- Associate member, United Services Institution, New Delhi
References
- ↑ "The Sunday Guardian".
- ↑ Hearings (24 February 2005). "July 21–22, 2005 Written Testimony by M. D. Nalapat". Uscc.gov. Retrieved 3 November 2012.
- ↑ "The Pakistan Observer".
- ↑ "Travancore The Kulasekhara Dynasty Genealogy". Christopher Buyers. Retrieved 1 June 2013.