The vitality and energy of the world of books and literature in India come to the Hay Festival with one of its major figures: Sanjoy Roy runs the world’s largest literary event, the Jaipur Literature Festival, and has created the parallel event, Jaipur Book Mark, in support of the publishing sector in Asia. With his company, Teamwork Arts, he also runs more than 25 acclaimed theatre, visual arts and literary festivals. He is the founder of the Salaam Baalak Trust (SBT), which works to offer services supporting street children and workers in central Delhi. In 2011, the White House granted SBT a President’s Committee on the Arts and Humanities award.

The Indian journalist and writer Pallavi Aiyar has a long career as a press correspondent and she has worked in Indonesia, China, Japan and other countries. Her first book, Smoke and Mirrors, deals with the political and social difference between the Chinese and Indian systems. Her subsequent work on the European crisis, Punjabi Parmesan, was chosen by Foreign Affairs magazine as one of the best books of 2016. She has published in many prestigious outlets, including The New York Times, Granta and Los Angeles Review of Books.

Roy and Aiyar will talk to Raphael Minder, Spain and Portugal correspondent for The New York Times. The event will be introduced by Catalina Tejero, the Head of the IE University’s Arts and Humanities Department.