Sagarika Ghose (born 8 November 1964) is an Indian

journalist A journalist is an individual that collects/gathers information in form of text, audio, or pictures, processes them into a news-worthy form, and disseminates it to the public. The act or process mainly done by the journalist is called journalism ...

, columnist and author. She has been a journalist since 1991 and has worked at ''

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 ...

'', ''

Outlook Outlook or The Outlook may refer to: Computing * Microsoft Outlook, an e-mail and personal information management software product from Microsoft * Outlook.com, a web mail service from Microsoft * Outlook on the web, a suite of web applications ...

'' and ''

The Indian Express ''The Indian Express'' is an English-language Indian daily newspaper founded in 1932. It is published in Mumbai by the Indian Express Group. In 1999, eight years after the group's founder Ramnath Goenka's death in 1991, the group was split betw ...

''. She was a prime time anchor for

BBC World BBC World News is an international English-language pay television network, operated under the ''BBC Global News Limited'' division of the BBC, which is a public corporation of the UK government's Department for Digital, Culture, Media and S ...

on ''Question Time India'' and on the news network

CNN-IBN CNN-News18 (originally CNN-IBN) is an Indian English-language news television channel founded by Raghav Bahl based in Noida, Uttar Pradesh, India. It is currently co-owned by Network18 Group and Warner Bros. Discovery. CNN provides internationa ...

, also being the deputy editor for the latter. Ghose has won several awards in journalism and is the author of two novels, as well as the biography of

Indira Gandhi Indira Priyadarshini Gandhi (; Given name, ''née'' Nehru; 19 November 1917 – 31 October 1984) was an Indian politician and a central figure of the Indian National Congress. She was elected as third prime minister of India in 1966 ...

, '' Indira: India's Most Powerful Prime Minister.'' She is currently the consulting editor of ''

''. In 2022, her biography of former Indian Prime Minister,

Atal Bihari Vajpayee Atal Bihari Vajpayee (; 25 December 1924 – 16 August 2018) was an Indian politician who served three terms as the 10th prime minister of India, first for a term of 13 days in 1996, then for a period of 13 months fr ...

was released

Education

Ghose studied from Delhi Public School, R. K. Puram and received her bachelor's degree in History from

St. Stephen's College, Delhi St. Stephen's College is a constituent college of the University of Delhi, widely regarded as one of the oldest and most prestigious colleges for arts and sciences in India. It was established in 1881 by the Cambridge Mission to Delhi. The college ...

. A recipient of the

Rhodes Scholarship The Rhodes Scholarship is an international postgraduate award for students to study at the University of Oxford, in the United Kingdom. Established in 1902, it is the oldest graduate scholarship in the world. It is considered among the world' ...

in 1987, she has a Bachelor's in Modern History from

Magdalen College Magdalen College (, ) is a constituent college of the University of Oxford. It was founded in 1458 by William of Waynflete. Today, it is the fourth wealthiest college, with a financial endowment of £332.1 million as of 2019 and one of the st ...

and an M.Phil. from

St Antony's College, Oxford St Antony's College is one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in England. Founded in 1950 as the result of the gift of French merchant Sir Antonin Besse of Aden, St Antony's specialises in international relations, economic ...

Career

Since 1991, she has worked as a journalist at ''

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 ...

'', ''

'' magazine and ''

'' and was deputy editor and prime time anchor on the news network

. Ghose resigned as deputy editor of

in July 2014. In 2004, she became the first woman to host ''Question Time India''. She was the deputy editor and a prime time anchor on the news network

. Her writings and broadcasts have earned her popularity and also criticism from right-wing viewers. Ghose's Twitter interview with

Arvind Kejriwal Arvind Kejriwal (Hindi: �ɾʋin̪d̪ ked͡ʒɾiːʋaːl born 16 August 1968) is an Indian politician, former bureaucrat, and activist who is the 7th and current Chief Minister of Delhi since February 2015. Currently, he is the national conv ...

of the

Aam Aadmi Party The Aam Aadmi Party (; AAP) is a political party in India, as one of the national political parties. The AAP was founded in November 2012 by Arvind Kejriwal and his then-companions following the 2011 Indian anti-corruption movement, popular ...

in 2013 became the first instance of an Indian politician giving a social media interview prior to the polls. Ghose resigned from

on 5 July 2014 after the network was acquired by the

Mukesh Ambani Mukesh Dhirubhai Ambani (born 19 April 1957) is an Indian billionaire businessman. He is the chairman and managing director of Reliance Industries Ltd. (RIL), a Fortune Global 500 company and India's most valuable company by market value. Acco ...

-led

Reliance Industries 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 ...

ltd. She was deputy editor of the channel.

Awards and honors

Her show ''Question Time Didi'', an audience based interaction with West Bengal chief minister

Mamata Banerjee Mamata Banerjee (; born 5 January 1955) is an Indian politician who is serving as the eighth and current List of chief ministers of West Bengal, chief minister of the States and union territories of India, Indian state of West Bengal since 20 ...

and students, from which Banerjee famously stormed out mid-way, received the NT Award for Best Public Debate Show in 2013. She was awarded the Gr8-ITA award for Excellence in Journalism in 2009. Ghose was awarded an Excellence in Journalism Award (Aparajita Award) from

FICCI The Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce & Industry (FICCI) is a non-governmental trade association and advocacy group based in India. History Established in 1927, on the advice of Mahatma Gandhi by Indian businessman G.D. Birla and ...

Ladies Organisation in 2005. In 2012 she received the CF Andrews Award for Distinguished Alumnus from St Stephen's College. In 2013, Ghose received the ITA Best Anchor Award from the Indian Television Academy (ITA). In 2014, The Rhodes Project included Ghose on a list of 13 famous women Rhodes Scholars. In 2017 Ghose was awarded the C.H.Mohammed Koya National Award for journalism.

Published works

Ghose is the author of two novels, ''The Gin Drinkers,'' published in 1998, and ''Blind Faith,'' in 2004. ''The Gin Drinkers'' was also published in the Netherlands. Ghose also published a biography of former Indian Prime Minister

, '' Indira: India's Most Powerful Prime Minister'' (Juggernaut Books) in 2017. The biography is slated to be made into a film. In 2022 her biography of former Indian Prime Minister,

was released In her 2018 non-fiction book, ''Why I Am A Liberal: A Manifesto For Indians Who Believe in Individual Freedom'', Ghose describes herself as a liberal who believes in rule of law, limited government, robust institutions and individual liberty. Ghose propounds the thesis that although the republic of India was founded as a liberal democracy in 1947, subsequent Indian governments throughout the post-Independence period have sought to attack individual liberty and vastly increase the powers of the government, or the powers of what she calls the Indian 'Big State'.

Personal life

She is the daughter of Bhaskar Ghose, formerly of the Indian Administrative Service 1960 batch, erstwhile Director General of

Doordarshan Doordarshan (abbreviated as DD; Hindi: , ) is an Indian public service broadcaster founded by the Government of India, owned by the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting and one of Prasar Bharati's two divisions. One of India's largest bro ...

, the Indian public television network. Her two aunts include

Arundhati Ghose Arundhati Ghose (25 November 1939 – 25 July 2016) was an Indian diplomat. She was Permanent Representative of India to the UN Offices in Geneva and was head of the Indian delegation that participated in the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Tre ...

, former ambassador and diplomat and

Ruma Pal Justice Ruma Pal (born 3 June 1941) was a judge of the Supreme Court of India until her retirement on 3 June 2006. Early life She read for her B.C.L degree at St Anne's College, Oxford and started practice in 1968 in Civil, Revenue, Labour an ...

, former justice of the

Supreme Court of India The Supreme Court of India ( IAST: ) is the supreme judicial authority of India and is the highest court of the Republic of India under the constitution. It is the most senior constitutional court, has the final decision in all legal matters ...

. She is married to journalist and news anchor

Rajdeep Sardesai Rajdeep Sardesai (born 24 May 1965) is an Indian news anchor, reporter, journalist and author. He is a consulting editor and an anchor of India Today Television. He was the Editor-in-Chief of Global Broadcast News, that included CNN-IBN, IBN7 ...

, the son of former Indian test cricketer

Dilip Sardesai Dilip Narayan Sardesai (; 8 August 1940 – 2 July 2007) was an Indian international cricketer. He played Tests for the Indian national team as a batsman, the first Goa-born cricketer to play for India, and was often regarded as one of India' ...

. Rajdeep and Sagarika have two children, son Ishan, and daughter Tarini.

Bibliography

*''The Gin Drinkers'' (1998) *''Blind Faith'' (2004) *'' Indira: India's Most Powerful Prime Minister'' (2017) *''Why I Am A Liberal: A Manifesto For Indians Who Believe in Individual Freedom'' (2018) *''Atal Bihari Vajpayee - India’s Most Loved Prime Minister'' (2022)

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Ghose, Sagarika 1964 births Living people Indian women novelists 21st-century Indian journalists Alumni of the University of Oxford Alumni of St Antony's College, Oxford Alumni of Magdalen College, Oxford Indian Rhodes Scholars Indian classical liberals Indian opinion journalists Delhi University alumni Indian television news anchors Indian women television journalists Indian women television presenters Indian women columnists Indian columnists Journalists from Delhi 21st-century Indian novelists Novelists from Delhi People from New Delhi 21st-century Indian women writers 20th-century Indian women writers 20th-century Indian journalists Women writers from Delhi Indian newspaper journalists