Ravish Kumar (born Ravish Kumar Pandey; 5 December 1974) is an Indian journalist, author, media personality and

YouTuber A YouTuber is a content creator and social media influencer who uploads or creates videos on the online video-sharing website YouTube, typically posting to their personal YouTube channel. The term was first used in the English language in 2006 ...

. He was the Senior Executive Editor of NDTV India. He hosted a number of programmes including the channel's flagship weekday show ''Prime Time'', ''Hum Log'', ''Ravish Ki Report'', and ''Des Ki Baat''. Kumar has twice been conferred with Ramnath Goenka Excellence in Journalism Award for the ''Best Journalist of the Year'' and became the fifth Indian journalist to receive the

Ramon Magsaysay Award The Ramon Magsaysay Award (Filipino language, Filipino: ''Gawad Ramon Magsaysay'') is an annual award established to perpetuate former Philippine President Ramon Magsaysay's example of integrity in governance, courageous service to the people, ...

in 2019.

Early life and education

Kumar was born on 5 December 1974 in Jitwarpur village in

East Champaran district East Champaran or Purvi Champaran is an administrative district in the Tirhut division of the state of Bihar in India. The district headquarter is located at Motihari. Prior to 1971, there was a single Champaran District. On 1 December 1971, it ...

Bihar Bihar ( ) is a states and union territories of India, state in Eastern India. It is the list of states and union territories of India by population, second largest state by population, the List of states and union territories of India by are ...

, to Baliram Pandey and Yashoda Pandey. He obtained his high school education from

Loyola High School, Patna Loyola High School is a Private school, private, Catholic Church, Roman Catholic, Mixed-sex education, co-educational Secondary school, high school in Kurji, Patna, Bihar, India. It was established in 1969 and administered by the Montfort Broth ...

. Later he moved to

Delhi Delhi, officially the National Capital Territory (NCT) of Delhi, is a city and a union territory of India containing New Delhi, the capital of India. Straddling the Yamuna river, but spread chiefly to the west, or beyond its Bank (geography ...

for higher studies. He graduated from Deshbandhu College, affiliated with the

University of Delhi The Delhi University (DU, ISO 15919, ISO: ), also and officially known as the University of Delhi, is a collegiate university, collegiate research university, research Central university (India), central university located in Delhi, India. It ...

. Eventually he enrolled in post-graduate diploma in

Hindi Modern Standard Hindi (, ), commonly referred to as Hindi, is the Standard language, standardised variety of the Hindustani language written in the Devanagari script. It is an official language of India, official language of the Government ...

Journalism from the

Indian Institute of Mass Communication Indian Institute of Mass Communication (IIMC) is a deemed-to-be-university, established on 17 August 1965, Delhi. Considered as the best media education institute of the country, it has five regional centers across India. The IIMC is an autonom ...

Career

NDTV career

From 1994 to 2022, he was employed by NDTV India, eventually as a senior director. He hosted several programmes, including the channel's flagship weekday show ''Prime Time'', ''Hum Log'', ''Ravish Ki Report'' and ''Des Ki Baat''. He has received death threats in the past for his journalism. On 30 November 2022, he resigned from

NDTV New Delhi Television Ltd is an Indian news media company focusing on broadcast and digital news publication. It was founded in 1984 by economist Prannoy Roy and journalist Radhika Roy. NDTV began as a production house for news segments, ...

, a day after the channel's founders and promoters Prannoy Roy and Radhika Roy resigned as directors on the board of RRPR Holding Private Limited (RRPRH).

YouTube career

Ravish Kumar started a YouTube channel after resigning from his job. On 5 May 2024, his channel reached the milestone of 10 million subscribers.

Awards and accolades

Ravish Kumar at University of Chicago Center New Delhi Journalism Week Lecture

Kumar has been conferred various awards for his work in journalism including the

(2019). He has been two times recipient of the Ramnath Goenka Excellence in Journalism Award (2017, 2013) for the broadcast category in the Hindi language. The list continues with '' Gauri Lankesh Award for Journalism,'' first Kuldip Nayar Journalism Award (2017), Ganesh Shankar Vidyarthi Award for Hindi Journalism and Creative Literature (for 2010, awarded in 2014). He was included in the list of 100 most influential Indians (2016) by ''

The Indian Express ''The Indian Express'' is an English-language Indian daily newspaper founded in 1932 by P. Varadarajulu Naidu. It is headquartered in Noida, owned by the ''Indian Express Group''. It was later taken over by Ramnath Goenka. In 1999, eight y ...

'' and also named ''Journalist of the Year'' by the Mumbai Press Club. Kumar was awarded the ''Honorary Title for Freedom of Expression'' for his critical and independent journalism in India by the

Vrije Universiteit Brussel The Vrije Universiteit Brussel (Dutch language, Dutch, ; lit. Free University of Brussels; abbreviated VUB) is a Dutch- and English-speaking research university in Brussels, Belgium. It has four campuses: Brussels Humanities, Science and Engine ...

(VUB) and the

Université libre de Bruxelles The (French language, French, ; lit. Free University of Brussels; abbreviated ULB) is a French-speaking research university in Brussels, Belgium. It has three campuses: the ''Solbosch'' campus (in the City of Brussels and Ixelles), the ''Plain ...

(ULB) in

Brussels Brussels, officially the Brussels-Capital Region, (All text and all but one graphic show the English name as Brussels-Capital Region.) is a Communities, regions and language areas of Belgium#Regions, region of Belgium comprising #Municipalit ...

Belgium Belgium, officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a country in Northwestern Europe. Situated in a coastal lowland region known as the Low Countries, it is bordered by the Netherlands to the north, Germany to the east, Luxembourg to the southeas ...

on the occasion of

World Press Freedom Day The United Nations General Assembly declared May 3 to be World Press Freedom Day or just World Press Day, observed to raise awareness of the importance of freedom of the press and remind governments of their duty to respect and uphold the righ ...

, 2023.

Personal life

Kumar is married to Nayana Dasgupta who teaches history at the Lady Shri Ram College,

. He has two daughters- Tanima and Tanisha.

In popular culture

Kumar was the subject of the 2023 documentary '' While We Watched'' directed by Vinay Shukla.

Books

* '' The Free Voice: On Democracy, Culture and the Nation'', 2018. *'' Bolna Hi Hai: Loktantra, Sanskriti Aur Rashtra Ke Bare Mein'' (in Hindi) *''Ishq Mein Shahar Hona'' (in Hindi) *''Dekhate Rahiye'' (in Hindi) *''Ravishpanti'' (in Hindi) *A City Happens In Love

References

External links

*
Ravish Kumar
on

YouTube YouTube is an American social media and online video sharing platform owned by Google. YouTube was founded on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim who were three former employees of PayPal. Headquartered in ...

{{DEFAULTSORT:Kumar, Ravish Living people Indian male television journalists NDTV Group Delhi University alumni People from Motihari Journalists from Bihar Indian male bloggers Indian political journalists Ramon Magsaysay Award winners Indian Institute of Mass Communication alumni 1974 births Indian YouTubers