Paranjoy guha thakurta biography

PARANJOY GUHA THAKURTA’s professional career started in June as a print journalist after he completed a Master’s degree in economics from the University of Delhi. His work experience, spanning more than four and a half decades, cuts across different mass media: the written word, the spoken word and the audio-visual medium—printed publications and websites, radio and podcasts, television, music videos and documentary cinema. He is a writer, speaker, anchor, interviewer, teacher, analyst/commentator, publisher, producer, director and consultant. Much of his work is in three languages: English, Bengali (his mother tongue) and Hindi. 

He has published and been published in other languages as well. His main areas of interest are the working of the political economy in India and the world, and the mass media. He has authored/co-authored eight books, published more than 30 books, directed/produced more than 25 long documentary films/film series and several hundreds of short films/videos, including music videos. In particular, he examines the allocation and pricing of natural resources, the working of crony capitalism and oligarchies, and communications in India. He teaches and speaks on these subjects to students, general audiences and also trains aspiring—and working—media professionals. 

As a member of the visiting faculty, he has been teaching a course on media and society at the Indian Institute of Management Ahmedabad every year continuously for the last 19 years. He has taught in several other reputed educational institutions in India and other countries in the world. He participates frequently in, and organises, seminars/conferences. He is a regular contributor to publications and websites. He is featured on television channels and radio programmes as an anchor as well as an analyst/commentator. He is a consultant with the NewsClick portal. Details follow.

Born on October 5, he was educated at La Martiniere for Bo

Indian journalist, writer and filmmaker

Paranjoy Guha Thakurta (born 5 October ) is an Indian journalist, writer, publisher, documentary film maker and teacher. He has been a guest faculty member at IIM Ahmedabad for 18 consecutive years, and also taught at the IIMs at Calcutta and Shillong, the University of Delhi, Jawaharlal Nehru University, Asian College of Journalism and Jamia Millia Islamia among other educational institutions. He is the only Indian journalist referred to in the famous Hindenburg Report on Adani.

Career

Guha Thakurta was educated at La Martiniere Calcutta, pursued his undergraduate degree in economics from St. Stephen's College and completed his master's degree from Delhi School of Economics in With the Emergency of –77, he decided to be a journalist over being a lecturer. In June , he joined a Kolkata-based magazine as assistant editor. Through his career spanning over 45 years, he has been associated with major media houses like Business India, Businessworld, The Telegraph, India Today and The Pioneer. He also hosted the chat show India Talks on CNBC-India which ran over episodes.

In , he directed a short documentary film Coal Curse which highlighted the wrongs in the Indian coal mining industry. The minute film, supported by Greenpeace, delved into the political economy of coal in contemporary India with the Singrauli example serving as a case study. This was Guha Thakurta's second film on coal, the earlier one being 'Hot as hell: Why Jharia is burning', that was produced in by the Public Service Broadcasting Trust.

His book Gas Wars: Crony Capitalism and the Ambanis, co-authored with Subir Ghosh and Jyotirmoy Chaudhuri, dealt with alleged irregularities of the prices of natural gas in the Indian market. Reliance Industries Limited, one of India's major conglomerates which is also involved in oil and gas exploration and production, se

During this free flow dialogue with veteran journalist, documentary film and music video maker, and teacher of media studies Paranjoy Guha Thakurta we explore the challenges, risks and rewards of choosing journalism as a career.

Paranjoy is a fearless journalist whose contribution to preserving the integrity of journalism is widely recognized.

In the times of paid media, and media controlled by corporates and politicians Paranjoy has faith in basic human curiosity for knowing the truth. It’s not an easy task for a journalist who is driven to bringing truth to their audience.

In this no-holds barred dialogue Paranjoy spares no one. I hope that this dialogue will help inspire the younger generation to pursue the profession of journalism with integrity, and sense of adventure.