Eminent artists Paresh Maity and his wife, Jayasri Burman, are Artists In-Residence at the Rashtrapati Bhavan for two weeks, tweets President Pranab Mukherjee.

In July, eminent author Amitav Ghosh was the writer-in-residence at the Rashtrapati Bhavan for four days. He was accompanied by his wife, Deborah Baker.

Ghosh is award-winning author and essayist whose books include:- The Circle of Reason, The Shadow Lines, In An Antique Land, Dancing in Cambodia, The Calcutta Chromosome, The Glass Palace, The Hungry Tide and The Ibis Trilogy: Sea of Poppies, River of Smoke and Flood of Fire.

The 'In-Residence' programme in Rashtrapati Bhavan was launched by the President of India on December 11, 2013 with the aim of providing writers and artists an opportunity to stay in Rashtrapati Bhavan and be a part of the life of Rashtrapati Bhavan.

The Programme seeks to provide an environment which will inspire creative thinking and rejuvenate artistic impulses.It is intended to honour and recognize eminent and established artists and writers as well as young upcoming talent from different parts of the country.

The first person to stay in Rashtrapati Bhavan as part of the programme was eminent artist and Member of Parliament, Jogen Choudhury. Invitations to live in-Residence have been also extended to Sculptor Subodh Gupta and Artist Paresh Maity.

The 'In-Residence' programme now includes grass root innovators, artists, writers, inspired teachers from Central Universities, award-winning school teachers from different States and scholars from IITs, IISERs, IISc-B and NITs. Around 140 persons have been part of these 'In-Residence' programmes till date.