Puducherry /ˌpɒndɨˈtʃɛri/ is a Union Territory of India formed out four enclaves of former French India and named for the largest, Pondicherry.

In September 2006, the territory changed its official name from Pondicherry to Puducherry, which means "New village" in the Tamil language. The territory is called புதுச்சேரி (Putuccēri) or பாண்டிச்சேரி (Pāṇṭiccēri) in Tamil, or Pondichéry in French. It is also known as "The French Riviera of the East" (La Côte d'Azur de l'Est).

Pondicherry consists of four small unconnected districts: Pondicherry, Karaikal and Yanam on the Bay of Bengal and Mahé on the Arabian Sea. Pondicherry and Karaikal are by far the larger ones and are both enclaves of Tamil Nadu. Yanam and Mahé are enclaves of Andhra Pradesh and Kerala respectively. The territory has a total area of 492 km²: Pondicherry (city) 293 km², Karaikal 160 km², Mahé 9 km² and Yanam 30 km². It has 900,000 inhabitants (2001).

Some of those enclaves are themselves amalgamations of non-contiguous enclaves, often called pockets in India. Thus, Pondicherry district is made of 12 pockets, some of whom are very small (see map) and entirely surrounded by the territory of Tamil Nadu. For its part, Mahe district is made of 3 pockets. This unusual geography is a legacy of the colonial period since the U.T. of Puducherry has retained the borders of former French India.

Priya Anand (born 17 September 1986) is an Indian film actress and model who appears in Telugu and Tamil. She appeared in some Telugu and Tamil films including, Leader and Vaamanan.

Priya Anand was born in Chennai, Tamil Nadu as the only child to a half Telugu, half Marathi father Bharadwaj Anand and a Tamil mother Radha. Because of her mixed regional background, she was brought up in both her parents' hometowns, Chennai and Hyderabad, Andhra Pradesh, becoming fluent in Tamil as well as Telugu. Besides her mother tongues, Priya is proficient in English,Bengali, Hindi and Spanish languages as well.

Priya, who describes herself as "naturally extremely hyperactive", became fascinated by films, developing an interest in cinema, since childhood, and noted that she has been dreaming of getting into the film industry and working on technical aspects of film making, but confesses she never thought of becoming an actor. She moved to the U. S., where she pursued her higher studies. Keeping her later career in mind, she studied Communications and Journalism at University of Albany. After completing her education, she returned to India in 2008 and since, stays with her grandparents in Chennai. However, she then ventured into modeling, appearing in various television commercials like Nutrine Maha Lacto, Prince Jewellery and Cadbury Dairy Milk.

Veeramalla Prakash Rao (born 15 January 1959) is an Indian activist and founder of Telangana Vimochana Samithi, an organisation fighting for the separate statehood for Telangana region. He worked as a General Secretary and spokesperson in TRS party. He quit TRS party in 2008 following its performance in the elections.

V. Prakash was born in Palampet, Venkatapur, in Warangal district, Andhra Pradesh.

V. Prakash started his career as an advocate in High Court of Andhra Pradesh. He is the co-founder of Telangana Rashtra Samithi.

He co-founded Telangana Vimochana Samithi, a non-political organisation in June 2009 along with MLC, K. Dileep Kumar. He is an Advisor for Telangana Dosti, a powerful network of Telangana.