Paranjoy Guha Thakurta, Independent Journalist, Writer, Speaker, Anchor & Commentator

Paranjoy Guha Thakurta is an independent journalist and an educator. His work experience, spanning over 33 years, cuts across different media: print, radio, television and documentary cinema. He is a writer, speaker, anchor, interviewer, teacher and commentator in three languages: English, Bengali and Hindi. He also teaches and trains aspiring – and working -- media professionals and is a regular contributor to many newspapers, magazines and websites and is frequently featured on television channels and radio programmes as an anchor as well as an analyst and commentator.

He started his career as a journalist in June 1977 and has been employed with various media organizations including companies bringing out publications such as Business India, BusinessWorld, The Telegraph, India Today and The Pioneer. He worked with Network 18 and anchored a daily interview and discussion programme called “India Talks” on the CNBC-India television channel – nearly 1,400 half-hour episodes of the programme were broadcast.

He is a visiting faculty member at over a dozen reputed educational institutions and is a member of the Press Council of India nominated by the University Grants Commission. He was the founder director of the School of Convergence (SoC). He has been a consultant at the Institute of South Asian Studies, National University of Singapore, making presentations and writing papers on Indian politics. He has been associated with a number of projects of the United Nations Development Programme and the International Labour Organization. He moderated two panel discussions at the International Labour Conference at Geneva in June 2009.

He is a director / producer of documentary films, “Idiot Box or Window of Hope”, “Hot As Hell: A Profile of Dhanbad”, “Grabbing Eyeballs: What’s Unethical About Television News in India” “Advertorial: Selling News or Products?”, “Blood & Iron: A Story of the Convergence of Crime, Business and Politics in Southern India” on the political, economic and ecological consequences of iron ore mining in Bellary (Karnataka) and Ananthapur (Andhra Pradesh). He has produced/directed a number of other documentary films.

He has co-authored a book entitled: “A Time of Coalitions: Divided We Stand”, which was later updated titled “Divided We Stand: India in a Time of Coalitions”. He has written “Media Ethics: Truth, Fairness and Objectivity, Making and Breaking News”. He is a partner of Media Network of India.

He educated at St. Stephen’s College, University of Delhi and at the Delhi School of Economics in the same university from where he obtained his Master’s degree in economics.