John is an economist by training, a financial journalist by the years, and a data fiend and a new-economy explorer at heart.
Before joining How India Lives, John was a journalist for 11 years, writing on corporate and economy subjects for The Economic Times, Outlook Business, Business Standard and Mint, and actively using data as a forensic tool. In the last five years, he focused on doing stories based on public information (an area mostly ignored), as businesses and governments are forced to disclose more than ever before, and uncovering corporate malfeasance.
In 2012, as a Tow-Knight Fellow in the entrepreneurial journalism program of the City University of New York, he crystallised his business idea of making available public data in a searchable and visual format into How India Lives, and was awarded a $16,000 grant from the Tow-Knight Foundation. He left The Economic Times in January 2014 to develop How India Lives on a full-time basis. John is based in New Delhi.
Email: johnraja@howindialives.com
Twitter: @johnraja
Avinash Celestine is a business journalist and has worked with a variety of national papers and magazines for the last 15 years. His only ‘breaks’ from journalism have been a year off to study economic history at the London School of Economics and three years to work with a non-profit that helped provide research support to Members of Parliament in India. Till recently, he was a business journalist with The Economic Times, where he wrote on macroeconomics and policy, and supported the newspaper’s graphics and visualisation for the 2014 elections. Over the last couple of years he taught himself to code (a bit). Avinash is based in New Delhi.
Email: avinashcelestine@howindialives.com
Twitter: @ac_soc
Personal blog: datastories.in
After studying economics and finance in college, Avinash gravitated towards business journalism. He has worked as a business journalist for 17 years in Business Standard, Outlook Money, The Indian Express, Outlook Business and, most recently, The Economic Times. While he’s been in editing/anchoring/production functions, he likes to work closely with writers and believes in the power of data to inquire, inform, marshall and persuade. He is based in New Delhi.
Email: avinashsingh@howindialives.com
Vinayak turned entrepreneur in 2001, at the age of 29, six years after passing out from IIM Bangalore with a major in finance. His first two ventures were in e-learning, namely Applect Learning Systems Private Limited (which has since become a Naukri Group company and runs MeritNation.com) and India Internet Learning Ventures Private Limited.
In 2009, he founded LearningConcepts, a firm that had its roots in e-learning but now specialises in developing Web-based software. Its focus is developing data visualisation solutions using different technologies like Flex, HTML5 for the web and mobile. It has designed and developed, among other things, aidflows.org, a World Bank website that visualises the flow of aid between donor and recipient countries.
Alongside running LearningConcepts, Vinayak is a partner at How India Lives, where he is in charge of the entire technology piece.
Email: vinayakjoshi@howindialives.com
Twitter: @vinayak
Ramnath is a journalist with over 12 years of experience covering outsourcing and technology -- first in The Economic Times, and then in Forbes India. He is also working on a project to offer news on mobile for Indian tech professionals.
Email: ramnath@howindialives.com
Twitter: @nsramnath
After a degree in business management, Anand worked as a financial journalist for four years. He is involved in formulation of strategy at How India Lives.
Email: anand@howindialives.com
Vidhya has seven years of experience in business journalism, with Business Standard, Mint, Outlook Business and The Economic Times. She has reported on business developments in Tamil Nadu and has recently taken an interest in data journalism. She is based in Bangalore.
Email: vidhyasrk@howindialives.com
An M.Com and an MBA, Anuf worked in process development with Aon Hewitt from 2008 to 2013 in Chennai. He was part of Aon’s health and welfare vertical, leading a team of about 50 associates.
Email: anufpvarghese@howindialives.com
Sayantani started her reporting career with another startup, Mindworks Global Media. She has since accumulated over nine years of experience covering corporate strategy, and media and consumer sectors. She was most recently a page editor with Business Standard, where she worked for various sections, including The Strategist. Sayantani is now an independent journalist, and one of the pieces in her work portfolio is doing data stories for How India Lives.
Email: sayantanikar@howindialives.com