Because #WeDeserveToKnow

Just a few years back, our newspapers were filled with news about scams. In particular, politicians, bureaucrats and top officers of India's largest companies were jailed and news companies spent months and years discussing crony capitalism and sweetheart deals. 

Then what happened? 
Suddenly, are all the big companies playing by the rule book? Has corruption really ended in India? If your answer is yes, you can stop reading the piece and exit.

Among many factors, the most visible difference between then and now is the state of the media in the country. Most media houses now are either owned or controlled by those who are direct beneficiaries of this crony business culture. That basically means they control what is reported... and they control what we read, what we hear and watch!

It's a challenge that is thrown at us - the citizens. Will we let them exploit our resources to fill up their coffers, or will we fight back by funding investigations that speak truth to those in power?

Senior Journalist Paranjoy Guha Thakurta has been leading the attack against cronyism with his fearless reports on the businesses headed by Mr Mukesh Ambani and Mr Gautam Adani. His book Gas Wars - Crony Capitalism and the Ambanis has been an authoritative documentation of how natural resources were exploited for private profits. Of course this attracted legal proceedings and censorship attempts.

His next project on the deals of Mr Adani has already attracted legal action but Thakurta remains undeterred. A repository of these documents is available at www.theafiles.in
 
He is seeking financial support for a series of multi-media, multi-language projects that are currently in different stages of execution: 

- The intersection of race, caste and class in  contemporary India
- The different aspects of the agrarian crisis in India
- The decrepit state of public health-care in India and the corruption in the country's medical education system
- The funding of politicians, political parties and election campaigns
- Impact of demonetisation on the political economy of India
- Whistleblowers and whistleblowing in India
- Countering fake news in India

About Paranjoy - 
Paranjoy Guha Thakurta's work experience, spanning over four decades, cuts across different media: print, radio, television and documentary cinema. He is a writer, speaker, anchor, interviewer, teacher and commentator in three languages: English, Bangla and Hindi. His main areas of interest are the working of the political economy and the media in India and the world, on which he has authored/co-authored books and directed/produced documentary films. He is a regular contributor to publications and websites and frequently appears on the radio and on television channels as an anchor as well as an analyst. Paranjoy served as Editor of the Economic and Political Weekly from April 4, 2016 to July 18, 2017.

More details at - For more details visit www.paranjoy.in, www.theafiles.in, www.gaswars.in)

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