One of the best regarded names in Indian publishing, V.K. Karthika was the Publisher and Chief Editor of HarperCollins Publishers India (HCI). Karthika, who had started her career with Penguin Books India in 1996, moved to HarperCollins in 2006 to head the publishing programme in India. During her time there she published some of the biggest names in literary writing in India, including Booker Prize winner Aravind Adiga, Manu Joseph, Anita Nair and Rana Dasgupta. She has also worked with writers like S. Hussain Zaidi and Anuja Chauhan, who were huge commercial successes. In 2014, after the global acquisition of Harlequin by News Corp, which also owns HarperCollins, Karthika oversaw the publishing programme of its Indian wing as well.