Anita Agnihotri

• Name — Anita Agnihotri অনিতা অগ্নিহোত্রী • Birthplace — Calcutta, West Bengal, India • Citizenship — Indian • Occupation — Author, retired civil servant • Website — https: www.anitaagnihotri.com

Anita Agnihotri (née Chatterjee) was born and spent her childhood in Kolkata. She earned a Bachelor of Arts in economics at Presidency College in Kolkata, and graduated with a master's in economics from Calcutta University.

She was selected for the Indian Administrative Service (IAS) in 1980 to the Odisha cadre. She went on to have a 37-year career in the civil service. As an IAS, she was Collector of Sundargarh district of Odisha and was Principal Secretary in Departments of Textiles and Industries. In 1991, she took a sabbatical from IAS and completed master's in development economics from the University of East Anglia. At the centre, she was a Joint Director General in Directorate General of Foreign Trade (DGFT) between 1996 and 2001, and then Development Commissioner of SEEPZ, Mumbai in 2008–2011 at the rank of Joint Secretary. She was also the member secretary of the National Commission for Women. She retired in 2016 as Secretary, Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment, Government of India.

Anita commenced writing at an early age. The writer Bimal Kar encouraged her to pursue a literary career. As a school student, she used to write for renowned filmmaker Satyajit Ray's children's magazine Sandesh, something that gave her confidence and also shaped her literary sensibilities. Her writing has been compared with that of noted Bengali writer Mahasweta Devi. • Illustration — The Secretary, Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment, Ms. Anita Agnihotri and the MD-NSKFDC In 1991, on a sabbatical from the IAS to pursue a course on rural development in UK's Anglia Ruskin University, she wrote the novella 'Mahuldiha Days capturing the incidents that she had encountered as an administrator in Odisha's Mahuldiha. In 2015, Anita's book Mahanadi was published. The eponymous book is written with the river Mahanadi in the first person. It tells the story of a river that flows through some of the least developed (and poorest) regions of Chhattisgarh and Odisha, and the profound influence of the river on the regions society, culture and economics. In 2021, Niyogi Books published the English translation of Mahanadi under the imprint Thornbird.

• Mahuldihar Din (1996) • Jara Bhalobesechhilo (1998, new Sopan edition 2019) • Akalbodhan (2003) • Alik Jiban (2006) • Sukhabasi (2009) • Aynay Manush Nai (2013) • Mahanadi (2015) • Upanyas Samagra (2018) • Kaste (2019) • Mahakantar (2021) • Labanakta (2022) • Aynay Manush Nai (2023)

• Chandan Gaachh (1987) • Brishti Asbe (1992) • Snajowa Bahini Jay (1995) • Nirbachita Kabita (1996) • Braille (2002) • Kritanjali Megh (2008) • Kabita Samagra (2009) • MalimHarbour (2015) • Ayna Matrisama (2016) • Shreshtha Kabita (2019)

• Chandan Rekha (1993) • Pratikshan Galpa Sankalan (1997) • Tarani (2000) • Atal Sparsha (2006) • Shrestha Galpa (2003, enlarged 2018) • Panchashti Galpa (2012) • Dashti Galpa (2009) • Bhalobasar Galpa (2018) • Sera Panchashti Galpa (2018) • Panchashti Galpa (2019) • Palasher Ayu (2022)

• Kolkatar Pratima Shilpira (2001) • Unnayan O Prantik Manush (2007) • Desher Bhitor Desh (2013) • Ei Andhare Ke Jage (2019) • Rod Bataser Path (2021) • Amar Pratibader Bhasha (2022) • Likhte Likhte Athoi Door (2023) • Involuntary Displacement in Dam Projects edited by A.B. Ota & Anita Agnihotri; foreword by Michael Cernea. Prachi Prakashan, 1996.