Our Trustees
A distinguished panel of professionals who are committed to maintaining the highest standards
NTICVA
Trustees
Ambassador Ajai Malhotra
Ambassador Ajai Malhotra (Chairman, NTICVA, since 2015) was with the Indian Foreign Service from 1977 till retirement as Ambassador/Grade I, after thirty seven years of distinguished service at the Indian Ministry of External Affairs and its missions in Bucharest, Geneva, Kuwait, Moscow, Nairobi/Seychelles, New York and Washington DC.
His responsibilities since 2014 include: Chairman & Managing Trustee of Chikitsa and Shiksha – NGO’s providing free primary healthcare and free education & vocational training respectively; Distinguished Fellow & Senior Adviser (Climate Change), TERI, and Adjunct Fellow, TERI School of Advanced Studies; and Chairman, Management Committee, NAB India Centre for Blind Women & Disability Studies.
He was Independent Director (2015-2019) of ONGC and ONGC Videsh, Member (2017-2023) and Chairperson (2021-2022) of the U.N. Human Rights Council Advisory Committee, Geneva, and Member (2022-2023) of the U.N. Working Group on Communications, Geneva.
Divia Patel
Ms. Divia Patel is a Senior Curator in the Asian Department of the Victoria and Albert Museum, London. She has over 25 years of experience at the V&A and as developed an extensive knowledge of the South Asian collection during this time. She specializes in South Asian painting (1850-present), photography, posters, modern and contemporary art, fashion, craft, design and popular culture. She co-curated the V&A’s major exhibition, The Fabric of India (2015-2016) with responsibility for the modern and contemporary content and is one of the primary authors of the accompanying book. Her research on contemporary design led to the publication India Contemporary Design: Fashion, Graphics, Interiors (2014). In her early career she curated Cinema India: The Art of Bollywood (2002 - 2007) which travelled nationally and international and The Photographers’ Pilgrimage: Exploring Buddhist Sites (V&A, 2009). She co-curated Indian Life and Landscape (2009-10) which toured extensively in India, and M.F Husain: Master of Modern Indian Painting (V&A, 2014). She has published on all these subject areas including pioneering work on the 19th century paintings of Ajanta and 19th century photography. Her focus on contemporary South Asia has led to significant acquisitions of work by contemporary artists and designers for the V&A’s permanent collection.
Professor Deborah Swallow
Professor Deborah Swallow is Professor Emerita at the Courtauld Institute of Art, University of London, where she was Marit Rausing Director from 2004-2023, and led the institution through its first major period after achieving institutional independence. Before that she was Keeper of the Asian Department and Director of Collections at the Victoria and Albert Museum. Trained as a social anthropologist she started her academic and curatorial career at the Cambridge University Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology in Cambridge. In the course of her career Professor Swallow has curated and managed a range of exhibitions, overseen major building and renovation projects, and published and supervised research on Indian and South-East Asian art and culture.
Dr Anil Seal
Dr Anil Seal is a Fellow of Trinity College, Cambridge. Together with John Gallagher, he is one of the founders of the ‘Cambridge School of Indian History’ which has helped to transform the understanding of modern India. His pioneering work on the ‘Emergence of Indian Nationalism’, published more than four decades ago, has led to many monographs from this ‘school’ by many of his erstwhile research students, now among the biggest figures in the subject. He is also the founder Director of the Cambridge Commonwealth Trust, Cambridge Overseas Trust, Cambridge European Trust, the Gates Cambridge Trust, the Isaac Newton Trust, the Malaysian Commonwealth Studies Centre at Cambridge; he was Joint Director of the Cambridge China Development Trust and Director of the Cambridge Malaysian Education and Development Trust, and Executive Trustee of the Nehru Trust for Cambridge University, inter alia. These trusts have enabled innumerable overseas and European students to study at Cambridge and launched other initiatives that have kept Cambridge at the forefront of the international academic scene.
Professor Naman Ahuja
Professor Naman Ahuja is Professor of Indian Art and Architecture at Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi. His research and graduate teaching focus on the foundations of image worship and the visual culture of South Asia from Mauryan to Gupta times, ancient temple statuary and iconography and the manuscripts painted in the Sultanate period in India -- all fields in which he is widely published. He has held Visiting Professorships and Fellowships at the University of Zurich, the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford, the Kunsthistorisches Institut, Florence, the University of Alberta, the Getty Foundation and Nehru Memorial Museum and Library, New Delhi. He has worked as a curator and advisor to the Museum of World Cultures, Barcelona, the British Museum and the Lumbini Museum. His prominent exhibitions include ‘The Body in Indian Art and Thought’ (Bozar, Brussels and National Museum, New Delhi), India & the World (British Museum + CSMVS & National Museum) and The Making of the Modern Indian Artist-Craftsman (Lalit Kala / Routledge). He is also the Editor of Marg, India’s leading magazine and journal on the arts, published from Mumbai.
Advisors and Administration
Dr Asok K Das
Dr. Das (Academic Advisor) is an art historian specialising in Mughal and Rajasthani art, museology and history, on which he has published more than sixty books, portfolios, research papers and popular articles. A former Director of the Maharaja Sawai Man Singh II Museum, Jaipur he is an author of several seminal works, particularly on artists of Akbar and Jahangir periods such as Daswant, Bishandas and Mansur, and his scholarship has made substantial contributions to the understanding and worldwide appreciation of Mughal and broader South Asian art. Bridging cultural gaps between East and West, Dr Das’s research has reshaped perspectives on the art of the Indian subcontinent, cementing his standing in global art history. He has held many honorific posts in India and overseas: Senior Visiting Fellow at the V & A Museum, London; Jawaharlal Nehru Fellow; Satyajit Ray Chair, Kala Bhavana, Visva-Bharati, Santiniketan; Visiting Professor at the School of Arts & Aesthetics, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi; Hart Fellow, Smithsonian Institution; Getty Museum Scholar, Los Angeles; Andrew W Mellon Fellow, Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York; Visiting Scholar, Museum of Islamic Art, Doha and Dar al-Atharyya, Kuwait; and Tagore National Fellow at the Indian Museum, Kolkata. He holds an Honorary D.Litt. from the University of London.
Aruna Ghose
Ms. Aruna Ghose (Executive Secretary) has over thirty years intensive experience in all editorial functions, from commissioning, vetting manuscripts to copy-editing, proofreading, and, if required, rewriting. She has worked with the India Magazine (part of the Business India Group) as well as Dorling Kindersly India (part of the Penguin Group) where she was Head of Department of the Travel Guide Division. For the last ten years she has been a freelance editor working with several publishing houses and reputed journals, specialising on Indian textiles, arts, crafts and culture.