Shekhar Gupta

Shekhar Gupta (born 26 August 1957) is an Indian journalist and author.[1] He is the founder and the current editor-in-chief of ThePrint.[2][3] He is also a columnist for the Business Standard and pens a weekly column which appears every Saturday.[4]

Shekhar Gupta
Gupta at the 2009 World Economic Forum
Born (1957-08-26) 26 August 1957
Palwal, India
NationalityIndian
Alma materPanjab University
OccupationJournalist
Known for
  • Hosting Walk the Talk
  • National Interest
  • Cut the Clutter
  • Off the Cuff ThePrint
TitleFounder & Editor-in-Chief of ThePrint
SpouseNeelam Jolly
AwardsPadma Bhushan (2009)

He has had long stints at The Indian Express and India Today. Gupta writes a weekly column called "National Interest" for India Today magazine. His "National Interest" columns for The Indian Express were collected in his 2014 book Anticipating India. He also hosted an interview-based television show Walk the Talk on NDTV 24x7. He was awarded the Padma Bhushan in 2009 by the Government of India for his contribution to journalism and was elected President of the Editor's Guild of India in 2018.[5]

Early life and career

Shekhar Gupta initially studied for three years (1962–1965) in Saraswati Shishu Mandir in Palwal, then in Punjab.[6] He completed his Bachelor of Journalism degree at Panjab University (1975–1976).

He started his career as a journalist working for The Indian Express in 1977. He worked there for 6 years and then resigned to join India Today where he covered Operation Bluestar, the Nellie Massacre in Assam and the Gulf War in 1991. He then rejoined The Indian Express as editor-in-chief and CEO, where he worked for 19 years from 1996 to 2015. He also hosted the show, "Walk The Talk with Shekhar Gupta" for NDTV for 15 years in which he talked to over 600 guests.[7] He resigned from Indian Express in 2014 and joined India Today for a brief period of 2 months.[8]

Currently he is the editor-in-chief and founder of ThePrint, which was launched in August 2017.[2] Gupta has stated that the mission for ThePrint is to be "factual and liberal".[9]

Awards and honours

Shekhar Gupta has received assorted awards: the 1985 Inlaks award for young journalist of the year,[10] G. K. Reddy Award for Journalism,[11] and the Fakhruddin Ali Ahmed Memorial Award for National Integration.[12] He was awarded Padma Bhushan by the then Indian Government in 2009 for his contribution to journalism.[13] Gupta was furthermore awarded an Honorary Doctor of Science degree from Thapar University (Patiala, India) in 2013.[14]

Under his leadership, The Indian Express won the Vienna-based International Press Institute's Award for Outstanding Journalism in the Public Interest thrice: The first time for its coverage of the Gujarat riots of 2002, the second time for uncovering the Bihar flood relief scam in 2009 and the third time for its sustained investigation into the Malegaon and Modasa blasts of 2008 and the alleged role of extremists and organisations.[15]

Controversies
Further information: 2013 Indian helicopter bribery scandal

In April 2019, Shekhar Gupta was one of the three journalists mentioned in the supplementary charge-sheet of AgustaWestland chopper deal scam.[16][17] Enforcement Directorate alleged that the main accused Christian Michel accepted that he through a middlemen paid Shekhar Gupta to "tone down" an article related to the deal in The Indian Express. The chargesheet of ED was leaked to the media in April 2019 just few days before the national elections. Delhi High court sent a notice to ED about the leaks.[18][19] It was Shekhar Gupta and Manu Pubby from Indian Express who brought this AgustaWestland scam into the public domain and the deal was cancelled by then UPA government after Indian Express exposed the scam.[20]

Bibliography

Books
  • Gupta, Shekhar (1984). Assam : a valley divided. New Delhi: Vikas.
  • — (1995). India redefines its role. IISS Adelphi Paper Series 293. Oxford: Oxford University Press for the International Institute for Strategic Studies.
  • — (2014). Anticipating India : the best of National Interest. New Delhi: Express Group.
  • — (2018). Walk the talk : decoding politicians. New Delhi: Rupa Publications.

Essays and reporting
  • Gupta, Shekhar (6 October 2014). "Making sense of Xi slap". National Interest. India Today. 39 (40): 20–21.
  • Gupta, Shekhar (2 October 2015). "Main-streaming The Lynch-Fringe". National Interest. Business Standard.

References
  1. Kaushik, Krishn (December 2014). "How profit and principle shaped the journalism of Shekhar Gupta". The Caravan. Retrieved 30 December 2019.
  2. "About-The Print".
  3. "To understand Modi's new Kashmir reality, these 5 liberal myths need to be broken". 17 August 2019.
  4. Gupta, Shekhar (11 August 2018). "Shekhar Gupta: In Mulk, Indian Muslims look you in the eye". Business Standard India.
  5. "Shekhar Gupta Elected New President of Editor's Guild of India". India Today.
  6. "Confessions Of A Shakhahari". www.OutlookIndia.com/. Retrieved 6 April 2019.
  7. "Shekhar Gupta's 'Walk The Talk' now in print". The New Indian Express. 15 September 2017. Retrieved 21 September 2020.
  8. Venkataramakrishnan, Rohan (1 September 2014). "Shekhar Gupta quits as India Today Group editor-in-chief after two months". Scroll.in.
  9. "Letter from the Editor-in-Chief".
  10. "Alumni". Inlaks Foundation. Archived from the original on 29 August 2012. Retrieved 11 May 2012.
  11. "National events in March 1997". The Hindu. Chennai, India. Archived from the original on 6 October 2003.
  12. "Fakhruddin Ali Ahmed awards for Shekhar Gupta, Shabana Azmi". The Hindu. Chennai, India. 19 October 2008.
  13. "Madhavan Nair, Abhinav Bhindra receive Padma awards". The Hindu. Chennai, India. 15 April 2009. Archived from the original on 16 April 2009. Retrieved 31 March 2008.
  14. The 28th Annual Report 2013 – 2014 - website of the Thapar Institute of Engineering and Technology
  15. "For tracking Malegaon blast plot, Express gets IPI Excellence award - Indian Express".
  16. "AgustaWestland: Michel hired advisor to 'influence' public opinion, chargesheet mentions 3 journalists- News Nation". www.NewsNation.in. 5 April 2019. Retrieved 6 April 2019.
  17. "AgustaWestland chargesheet mentions three journalists". The Quint. 5 April 2019. Retrieved 6 April 2019.
  18. IANS (5 April 2019). "AgustaWestland chargesheet mentions three journalists". Business Standard India. Retrieved 6 April 2019 – via Business Standard.
  19. ""Didn't Name Anyone": Christian Michel In Court As Chargesheet Names Ahmed Patel". NDTV.com. Retrieved 6 April 2019.
  20. "Indian Express exposed Michel, Tyagi, note with initials; mentioned in chargesheet". IndianExpress.com. 6 April 2019. Retrieved 6 April 2019.
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