Paranjoy Guha Thakurta (born 5 October 1955) is an Indian journalist, writer, publisher, documentary film maker and teacher. He has been a guest faculty member at

IIM Ahmedabad Indian Institute of Management Ahmedabad (IIM Ahmedabad) is the world's number 1 business school, located in Ahmedabad, Gujarat, India. The school has been accorded the status of an Institute of National Importance by Ministry of Human Resource ...

for 18 consecutive years, and also taught at the IIMs at

Calcutta Kolkata (, or , ; also known as Calcutta , List of renamed places in India#West Bengal, the official name until 2001) is the Capital city, capital of the Indian States and union territories of India, state of West Bengal, on the eastern ba ...

and

Shillong Shillong () is a hill station and the capital of Meghalaya, a Indian state, state in northeastern India, which means "The Abode of Clouds". It is the headquarters of the East Khasi Hills district. Shillong is the list of most populous cities in ...

, the

University of Delhi Delhi University (DU), formally the University of Delhi, is a collegiate central university located in New Delhi, India. It was founded in 1922 by an Act of the Central Legislative Assembly and is recognized as an Institute of Eminence (IoE) ...

Jawaharlal Nehru University Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) is a public major research university located in New Delhi, India. It was established in 1969 and named after Jawaharlal Nehru, India's first Prime Minister. The university is known for leading faculties and r ...

Asian College of Journalism The Asian College of Journalism (ACJ) is a journalism school in Chennai, India, which offers postgraduate diploma courses in journalism. History Asian College of Journalism, Chennai was founded in Bangalore as the Asian School of Journalism, Ba ...

and

Jamia Millia Islamia Jamia Millia Islamia () is a central university located in New Delhi, India. Originally established at Aligarh, United Provinces (present-day Uttar Pradesh, India) during the British Raj in 1920, it moved to its current location in Okhla in ...

among other educational institutions.

Career

Guha Thakurta was educated at

La Martiniere Calcutta ''La Martiniere ''(informally known as LMC) is an elite, independent private day school located in Kolkata (Calcutta), West Bengal. It comprises two single-gender boys and girls schools. It was established in 1836 in accordance with the will of t ...

, pursued his undergraduate degree in Economics from St. Stephen's College and completed his masters from

Delhi School of Economics Delhi School of Economics (DSE), popularly referred to as "D School", is a Higher Educational Institution within the University of Delhi. The Delhi School of Economics is situated in University of Delhi's North Campus in Maurice Nagar. Establ ...

in 1977. With the Emergency of 1975-77, he decided to be a journalist over being a lecturer. In June 1977, 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 ''Business India'' is a fortnightly business news magazine founded by brothers Ashok Hotchand Advani, Hiroo Advani and Rajkumar Advani in 1978 and published in Mumbai Mumbai (, ; also known as Bombay — List of renamed Indian cities an ...

'', ''

Businessworld ''BusinessWorld'' is a business newspaper in the Philippines with a nationwide circulation of more than 117,000 (as of March 2014). Founded in 1967 as ''Business Day'', it is Southeast Asia's first daily business newspaper. History ''Busin ...

'', ''

The Telegraph ''The Telegraph'', ''Daily Telegraph'', ''Sunday Telegraph'' and other variant names are popular names for newspapers. Newspapers with these titles include: Australia * ''The Telegraph'' (Adelaide), a newspaper in Adelaide, South Australia, publ ...

'', ''

India Today ''India Today'' is a weekly Indian English-language news magazine published by Living Media India Limited. It is the most widely circulated magazine in India, with a readership of close to 8 million. In 2014, ''India Today'' launched a new onl ...

'' and '' The Pioneer''. He also hosted the chat show ''India Talks'' on CNBC-India which ran over 1400 episodes. In 2013, he directed a short documentary film ''Coal Curse'' which highlighted the wrongs in the Indian coal mining industry. The 45-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 2006 by the Public Service Broadcasting Trust. His 2014 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 Reliance Industries Limited is an Indian multinational conglomerate company, headquartered in Mumbai. It has diverse businesses including energy, petrochemicals, natural gas, retail, telecommunications, mass media, and textiles. Reliance is o ...

, one of India's major conglomerates which is also involved in oil and gas exploration and production, sent a legal notice to Guha Thakurta and others for defamation through this book. Paranjoy Guha Thakurta Aakar Patel

In 2016, he joined EPW (Economic and Political Weekly) as Editor. Following his article on how

Adani Group Adani Group is an Indian multinational conglomerate, headquartered in Ahmedabad. It was founded by Gautam Adani in 1988 as a commodity trading business, with the flagship company Adani Enterprises. The Group's diverse businesses include po ...

was benefited by the government policies, a defamation notice was sent to the Sameeksha Trust and the authors of the article. Soon after that, Guha Thakurta resigned as the Editor of EPW. The article brought to light how the

Government A government is the system or group of people governing an organized community, generally a state. In the case of its broad associative definition, government normally consists of legislature, executive, and judiciary. Government is a ...

tweaked the rules which favoured a certain company within the

to the tune of Rs 500 Crores. EPW tried to reach out to

Ministry of Finance A ministry of finance is a part of the government in most countries that is responsible for matters related to the finance. Lists of current ministries of finance Named "Ministry" * Ministry of Finance (Afghanistan) * Ministry of Finance and Eco ...

and Ministry of Industry and Commerce, but no explanation was given for this policy decision. The

is headed by

Gautam Adani Gautam Shantilal Adani (born 24 June 1962) is an Indian billionaire industrialist who is the chairman and founder of Adani Group, a multinational conglomerate involved in port development and operations in India. He is also the president of Ad ...

who is understood to be close to

Prime Minister A prime minister, premier or chief of cabinet is the head of the cabinet and the leader of the ministers in the executive branch of government, often in a parliamentary or semi-presidential system. Under those systems, a prime minister is not ...

Narendra Modi Narendra Damodardas Modi (; born 17 September 1950) is an Indian politician serving as the 14th and current Prime Minister of India since 2014. Modi was the Chief Minister of Gujarat from 2001 to 2014 and is the Member of Parliament from ...

. Guha Thakurta was appointed Editor of the

Economic and Political Weekly The ''Economic and Political Weekly'' (''EPW'') is a weekly peer-reviewed academic journal covering all social sciences, and is published by the Sameeksha Trust. In January 2018, academic Gopal Guru was named the new Editor of the journal. Guru wil ...

(EPW) in January 2016 replacing C Rammanohar Reddy, who steered the prestigious journal since 2004. Guha Thakurta resigned as editor of EPW on July 18, 2017 over alleged differences with the board of the Sameeksha Trust that runs the journal. Guha Thakurta co-authored an article about the

tax evasion Tax evasion is an illegal attempt to defeat the imposition of taxes by individuals, corporations, trusts, and others. Tax evasion often entails the deliberate misrepresentation of the taxpayer's affairs to the tax authorities to reduce the taxp ...

following which Adani Power sent a legal notice to the

. Fearing an expensive lawsuit by one of India’s biggest corporate houses EPW then decided to take down the article, prompting Paranjoy Guha Thakurta's resignation.

Paid news

Guha Thakurta was a member of the sub-committee set up by the

Press Council of India The Press Council of India is a statutory, adjudicating organisation in India formed in 1966 by its parliament. It is the self-regulatory watchdog of the press, for the press and by the press, that operates under the Press Council Act of 1978., Q ...

to look into the malaise of paid news. Initially, the report titled '‘Paid News: How Corruption in the Indian Media Undermines Democracy" was to be released on 26 April 2010, but it was deferred after many members of the Council raised objections. A diluted version of the report, which was released on 30 July 2010, raised a storm. A number of newspaper establishments were named as having indulged in editorial malpractices. These included Bennett, Coleman and Co (owners of ''

The Times of India ''The Times of India'', also known by its abbreviation ''TOI'', is an Indian English-language daily newspaper and digital news media owned and managed by The Times Group. It is the third-largest newspaper in India by circulation and largest ...

''),

HT Media HT Media is an Indian mass media company based in Delhi, India. It has holdings in print, electronic and digital media. HT Media's flagship newspaper is the ''Hindustan Times'', the second most widely read English newspaper in India after ''The ...

(owners of ''

Hindustan Times ''Hindustan Times'' is an Indian English-language daily newspaper based in Delhi. It is the flagship publication of HT Media, an entity controlled by the KK Birla family, and is owned by Shobhana Bhartia. It was founded by Sunder Singh Lyall ...

, Hindustan'' and ''

Mint MiNT is Now TOS (MiNT) is a free software alternative operating system kernel for the Atari ST system and its successors. It is a multi-tasking alternative to TOS and MagiC. Together with the free system components fVDI device drivers, XaA ...

''), ''

Dainik Jagaran ''Dainik Jagran'' ( Hi:दैनिक जागरन , , ) is an Indian Hindi language daily newspaper. It was ranked 5th in the world and 2nd in India by circulation in 2016. In 2019 Quarter 4, according to Indian Readership Survey, Daini ...

Dainik Bhaskar ''Dainik Bhaskar ''is India's largest Hindi-language daily newspaper owned by the Dainik Bhaskar Group. According to Audit Bureau of Circulations, it is ranked 3rd in the world by circulation and is the largest newspaper in India by circula ...

Punjab Kesari Punjab (; Punjabi: پنجاب ; ਪੰਜਾਬ ; ; also romanised as ''Panjāb'' or ''Panj-Āb'') is a geopolitical, cultural, and historical region in South Asia, specifically in the northern part of the Indian subcontinent, comprising ...

Lokmat ''Lokmat'' () is a Marathi language newspaper published in Maharashtra state. Founded in 1971 by Jawaharlal Darda, it is the largest read regional language newspaper in India with more than 18 million readers and the No. 1 Marathi newspaper i ...

Eenadu ''Eenadu'' () is the largest circulated Telugu-language daily newspaper of India sold mostly in the states of Andhra Pradesh and Telangana.Sakshi group, among others. In September 2010, the

Central Information Commission The Central Information Commission is a statutory body, set up under the Right to Information Act in 2005 under the Government of India to act upon complaints from those individuals who have not been able to submit information requests to a Cent ...

(CIC) of India directed the Council to make public the report as part of ''suo motu'' disclosure mandated under the Right to Information (RTI) Act. Guha Thakurta has since written extensively on the issue of "paid news". In a December 2013 article for ''

First Post ''Firstpost'' is an Indian online news and media website. The site is a part of the Network 18 media conglomerate owned by Reliance Industries, which also runs CNN-News18 and CNBC-TV18. The ''Network 18'' group was originally owned by Raghav ...

'', he explained why the malaise of "paid news" is a threat to democracy:

PIL on 2G case

Guha Thakurta was one of many well-known people who joined a public interest litigation in the

2G spectrum case The 2G spectrum case was a political controversy in which politicians and private officials of the United Progressive Alliance coalition government India were involved in selling or allotting 122 2G spectrum licenses on conditions that provi ...

, originally filed by the

Centre for Public Interest Litigation The Centre for Public Interest Litigation (CPIL) is an Indian non-governmental organisation that conducts litigation on matters of public interest. The CPIL was established by late Justice V. M. Tarkunde, a former judge of the Supreme Court of Ind ...

(CPIL) led by lawyer

Prashant Bhushan Prashant or Prasant is a common male name in South Asia. It is derived from the word "shanth" which means patience, calm, quiet, or tranquil. People with the given name * Prashant Bose - Indian politician * Prashant Bhushan - Indian lawyer, ...

. He has written extensively on the scam, with the first article on the subject appearing in ''

The Economic Times ''The Economic Times'' is an Indian English-language business-focused daily newspaper. It is owned by The Times Group. ''The Economic Times'' began publication in 1961. As of 2012, it is the world's second-most widely read English-language bus ...

'' in November 2007. Soon after its publication, a legal notice was served on him by

Reliance Communications Reliance Communications Limited (RCOM) was an Indian mobile network provider headquartered in Navi Mumbai that offered voice and 2G and 3G and 4G data services. In February 2019, the company filed for bankruptcy as it was unable to sell asse ...

Works

Books

* ''A Time of Coalitions: Divided We Stand'', 2004 SAGE; co-author Shankar Raghuraman, . * ''Media Ethics'', 2009 Oxford University Press, . * '' Gas Wars: Crony Capitalism and the Ambanis'', 2014 Paranjoy Guha Thakurta; co-authors Subir Ghosh and Jyotirmoy Chaudhuri, . * '' Sue the Messenger: How legal arm-twisting by corporates is shackling reportage and undermining democracy in India''; co-author with Subir Ghosh; 2016 Paranjoy and Authors UpFront, . * ''Thin Dividing Line: India, Mauritius and Global Illicit financial flows''; co-authored with Shinzani Jain; 2017 Penguin Random House India, . * ''Loose Pages:Court Cases That Could Have Shaken India'', co-author Sourya Majumder, . * ''The Real Face of Facebook in India: How Social Media have Become a Weapon and Disseminator of Disinformation and Falsehood'', 2019 Paranjoy Guha Thakurta; co-author Cyril Sam, * ''A Million Mission: Non Profit Sector in India,'' 2014 Paranjoy; Author Mathew Cherian, * ''Calcutta'' ''Diary'', 2014 Paranjoy; Author Ashok Mitra, * ''The Modi Myth'', 2015 Paranjoy; Author S. Nihal Singh, * ''Netaji: Living Dangerously'', 2015 Paranjoy; Author Kingshuk Nag, * ''Idea of India Hard To Beat: Republic Resilient,'' 2016 Paranjoy; Author Badri Raina, * ''First Person Singular,'' 2016 Paranjoy; Author Ashok Mitra, * ''Encounters,'' 2016 Paranjoy; Author Ramnika Gupta, * ''Junkland Journeys: The witty story of how world is won by a whacky addict who discovers god in a dog'', 2016 Paranjoy; Author Ajith Pillai, * ''Edward John Thompson: British Liberalism and the Limits of Rapprochement,'' 2016 Paranjoy; Author Shashi Raina, * ''The Story of Secularism: 15th-21st Century,'' 2016 Paranjoy; Author Nalini Rajan, * ''Kashmir: A Noble Tryst in Tatters,'' 2017 Paranjoy; Author Badri Raina, * ''Chasing His Father's Dreams: Inside Story of Odisha's Longest Serving Chief Minister,'' 2017 Paranjoy; Author Biswajit Mohanty, * ''The Russian Revolution: And Storms Across A Century (1917-2017)'', 2017 Paranjoy; Author, Achala Moulik, * ''Alternative Futures: India Unshackled,'' 2017 AuthorsUpFront Paranjoy; Authors Ashish Kothari and K.J. Roy, * ''Grand Illusion: The GSPC Disaster and the Gujarat Model,'' 2017 Paranjoy; Author Subir Ghosh, * ''Corruption, CBI and I: More than Memories of a Veteran Scam-Buster,'' 2020 Paranjoy; Authors Shantonu Sen and Sanjukta Basu, * ''India's Long Walk Home,'' 2020 Paranjoy; Authors Ishan Chauhan and Zenaida Cubbinz, * ''India: The Wasted Years,'' 2021 Paranjoy; Author Avay Shukla, * ''Electoral Democrary? An Inquiry into the Fairness and Integrity of Elections in India,'' 2022 Paranjoy; Edited by M.G. Devasahayam, Book Launch of Loose Pages Court Cases That Could Have Shaken India

Book Launch of Loose Pages Court Cases That Could Have Shaken India

Documentaries

* ''Idiot Box or Window of Hope, 2003'' * ''Hot As Hell: A Profile of Dhanbad, 2006'' * ''Grabbing Eyeballs: What’s Unethical About Television News in India, 2007'' * ''Advertorial: Selling News or Products?, 2009'' * ''So Near Yet So Far, 2009'' * ''Blood & Iron: A Story of the Convergence of Crime, Business and Politics in Southern India, 2010-11'' * ''The Great Indian Telecom Robbery, 2011'' * ''Freedom Song, 2012'' * ''Children In Crossfire, 2013'' * ''A Thin Dividing Line, 2014'' * ''Coal Curse, 2013'' * ''In the Heart of Our Darkness: The Life and Death of Mahendra Karma, 2013'' * ''Inferno: Jharkhand's Underground Fires, 2015'' * ''Even it Up, 2015'' * ''Farzi:Vypam Ka Vyapaar, 2018'' * ''Unfair,2019'' * ''India's Children: Gorakhpur's Broken Public Health, 2019'' * ''Anand Vihar: Workers on the Longest Walk of their Lives, 2020'' * ''Migrant Workers: Stranded and Scared, 2020'' * ''What Bengal Thinks Today, 2021'' * '' Anjan Ghosh Tribute, 2021''

Music Videos

* ''Dike Dike Hao Hushiar, 2021'' (Producer and Director), Featurin
The Fiddler's Green
* ''Dharti Tumhari, Dharti Hamari, 2021'' (Producer and Director), Featuring Deepak Castelino

References

External links

Personal website

Hot as hell
on Culture Unplugged
Books on Amazon
{{DEFAULTSORT:Thakurta, Paranjoy Guha Delhi School of Economics alumni Indian male television journalists Indian documentary filmmakers Indian newspaper editors Indian political writers Indian publishers (people) Living people 1955 births 20th-century Bengalis Bengali film directors Bengali writers Bengali Hindus Journalists from West Bengal Indian journalists Indian male journalists 20th-century Indian journalists 21st-century Indian journalists English-language writers from India Indian film directors 21st-century Indian film directors Film directors from West Bengal Indian newspaper journalists Indian academics Indian book publishers (people) Indian music video directors Indian scholars 21st-century Indian scholars Indian environmental writers Indian political scientists Indian social sciences writers Indian sociologists Indian economics writers Indian non-fiction environmental writers Indian economists 20th-century Indian economists 21st-century Indian economists Indian social scientists 20th-century Indian social scientists 21st-century Indian social scientists Indian development economists Indian development specialists Indian male writers 21st-century Indian writers Indian non-fiction writers Indian male non-fiction writers 21st-century Indian non-fiction writers