The Devis

Vidya Subramanian

Vidya Subramanian is a Carnatic vocalist and disciple of maestro Padma BhushanLalgudiJayaraman. She is currently under the guidance of eminent vocalist Dr VijayalakshmySubramaniam. Vidya is also a Chartered Accountant (All India Rank 2 in CA Final, May 2000 and All India Rank 3, CA Inter, Nov 1998) with an MBA in Finance from Boston College, USA. She was granted CFA Charter in 2006. She is the Founder of Vidya Subramanian Academy, an online portal that has been imparting training in Carnatic music and other traditional Indian arts to students from all over the world for over a decade. Vidya’s exemplary work in the online teaching of Carnatic music has led to her being featured in a special documentary on BBC World News.

Vidya was conferred the Women Transforming India (WTI) 2021 award. The WTI Awards are NITI Aayog - Women Entrepreneurship Platform’s annual initiative to highlight commendable and ground-breaking endeavours of India’s women leaders and changemakers and are supported by United Nations - India, FICCI and various corporate partners. Other awards won by Vidya include the CA Entrepreneur Award 2019 (from the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India), Kalaimamani Award 2018 (highest honour given by the state of Tamil Nadu for contribution to the arts), Champion of Chennai Award (2022), Homepreneur Award (2018) as well as Vocational Excellence Award by Rotary Club of Chennai Spotlight (2016). Vidya was also recognised as an inspiring woman entrepreneur in the technology/social impact space by NITI Aayog and FICCI in their prestigious Road to Global Entrepreneurship Summit 2017 event.

Vidya Subramanian Academy (VSA) is a successful and rapidly growing online institution, in which, Vidya and her team of teachers train aspirants in Carnatic music (vocal and instrumental), Hindustani music, Bharatanatyam, slokas and chants, languages, yoga and Konnakkol. Vidya has successfully leveraged her in-depth knowledge of music and her business training to adapt traditional Carnatic music pedagogy to suit an online, culturally diverse student group. Students from all over the world reach out to Vidya to receive training in this art form in a technically sound manner in a customised, easy-to-follow format.

Vidya runs her academy with a socio-commercial focus on empowering artists, especially women, with the ability to successfully share their knowledge in music and other art forms via the online platform. VSA currently has over 1,500 students from various ages, learning levels and cultural backgrounds. VSA’s specialised training module for teachers enables them to leverage modern technology to teach ancient art forms. Vidya has helped create opportunities for many artists and teachers who are interested in online teaching but often lack the necessary training and exposure to make use of technology. She welcomes students at all levels from across the world to contact her to explore learning opportunities. VSA Certification Exams and VSA Workshops are recent initiatives in her quest to take India’s traditions to a global platform.

Vishakha Hari

Gagandeep Kang

Radhika Santhanakrishnan

Namrata and Anuradha

Dr P Poorna Chandrika

Vijayalakshmi Nachiar

Priyadarsini Govind

PriyadarsiniGovind is one of the foremost Bharatanatyam dancers among the current generation. Trained by two stalwarts, Kalaimamani SK Rajarathnam Pillai and Padma BhushanKalanidhiNaryanan, she has imbibed this art form from the best. With her natural aptitude for abhinaya coupled with her passion and dedication to her art, Priyadarsini has become a flag bearer for Kalanidhi’spadam repertoire. Her nrittya or pure dance is intense and vigorous. A dancer known for her adherence to tradition, she manages to seamlessly blend new choreography with the traditional, thereby, gently redefining the boundaries of Bharatanatyam repertoire.

Priyadarsini has been performing at prestigious venues all over India and the globe, taking Bharatanatyamto many major international and national festivals as a soloist. She is actively engaged in performing, creating new repertoires for dance and teaching. Among her recent works are a unique set of instructional DVDs for Bharatanatyam, conceptualised and created for Kalakriya, covering the entire Bharatanatyammargam as well as focusing on capturing and documenting KalanidhiNayarayan’s teaching and practice of abhinaya. She has collaborated with several top-notch artists from around the world such as Leela Samson, UmayalpuramSivaraman, Bombay Jayashree, TM Krishna, ArunaSairam, Elisabet Petit and GowriRamnarayan to create diverse and delightful artistic experiences for her audience.

PriyadarsiniGovind has been honoured with many awards for her excellence and service in the field of arts, which include the NrityaKalanidhi by the Madras Music Academy (2019), SangeetNatakAkademi Award (2012), Yuva Kala Bharathi, Kalaimamani, Nrityachoodamani to name a few.

She served as the Director of the Kalakshetra Foundation between August 5, 2013 and June 19, 2017. She is the Founder and Director of NavaDarshana — an initiative that teaches dancers to view dance holistically. Through its unique programmes and activities, NavaDarshana enables a dancer to evolve into artiste by gently expanding their self-imposed boundaries to explore, create and excel in their artistic journey. Most recently, she has conceptualised, created and produced a dance-on-film Yavanika, a first of its kind. She has also formulated a structured way of learning abhinaya — Learning Ladder — that is being broadcasted at Kalakendra.

Nanditha Krishna

Joshna Chinappa

Dr Ramya

Dr Ramya S Moorthy is the Founder and Director of Nimaya Robotics from Chennai and has spent the last eight years of her life working towards a singular goal — to help children with special needs. Nimaya Robotics is a one-of-its-kind pioneering company that employs the use of robotics in the training of psychomotor and cognitive skills for Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) and other multiple disabilities.

Dr Ramya developed Suprayoga, an IoT-based cloud-monitored device and training methodology designed to augment existing occupational therapy programmes that helps accelerate the rate of learning by more than 60 per cent in children with ASD. For Dr Ramya, the rationale for starting a company that works with children with ASD was very simple — if her device could help even one child out there live a life that is not limited by their disorder, then she would do everything in her power to help that child.

Dr Ramya’s journey has been a whirlwind of events and emotions, with her living through a fire accident, losing her voice briefly in addition to the fire wrecking her life’s work. Yet, she has shown phenomenal strength by getting back up and crossing the finish line, because she knew she had a purpose in life, defined by a phone call. The call was from a special educator of a child, with whom she had worked in the past. She was delightfully informed that a child who was initially diagnosed with almost nil psychomotor skills at the beginning of the training, was able to remember and carry out every skill he had learnt even after a year. This planted the seed for Nimaya in Dr Ramya's heart.

Since that day, there has been no looking back! Dr Ramya S Moorthy has been awarded the Women Transforming India Award 2021 by NITI Aayog. Nimaya Robotics has been awarded the Innovation of the Year Award by the Association of Lady Entrepreneurs (ALEAP), Telangana.

Nimaya means to create a change in Sanskrit and true to its name, what the start-up is trying to do for millions of children is help them progress towards independent living. Nimaya Systems have been doing the same for children across the country through special schools including central government organisations (NIEPMD).

Dr Ramya is an INSPIRE Fellow, IIS Fellow 2018 and university gold medalist in MTech Robotics. She has a Bachelor's Degree in Electrical and Electronics Engineering. Her work has also been published in several international scientific journals on robotics. A few of her other experiences in robotics are in the field of industrial robotics.