Ansif Ashraf (15 November 1983 – 27 January 2021) was an Indian businessman who was the

editor-in-chief An editor-in-chief (EIC), also known as lead editor or chief editor, is a publication's editorial leader who has final responsibility for its operations and policies. The editor-in-chief heads all departments of the organization and is held accoun ...

of the '' Cochin Herald''.

Early life

Ansif Ashraf was born in Thane,

Maharashtra Maharashtra () is a state in the western peninsular region of India occupying a substantial portion of the Deccan Plateau. It is bordered by the Arabian Sea to the west, the Indian states of Karnataka and Goa to the south, Telangana to th ...

, and moved to

Kochi Kochi ( , ), List of renamed Indian cities and states#Kerala, formerly known as Cochin ( ), is a major port city along the Malabar Coast of India bordering the Laccadive Sea. It is part of the Ernakulam district, district of Ernakulam in the ...

Kerala Kerala ( , ) is a States and union territories of India, state on the Malabar Coast of India. It was formed on 1 November 1956, following the passage of the States Reorganisation Act, by combining Malayalam-speaking regions of the erstwhile ...

with his family in the early 1990s. His father was one of the founders of the '' Cochin Herald'' newspaper.

Career

He started his career as a graphic designer from home in 2000. In 2001 he started a studio for photography and designing. In 2006 he founded Paradise Group, which was a trading company engaged in business of Rubber and Carbon Black. In 2008 he founded AGI Holdings Limited which was engaged in selling Centrifuge Separators. In 2011, Ansif Ashraf gained control of the '' Cochin Herald'', turning it into a business magazine. Ansif was one of the founders of Young Chamber of Commerce, an organisation for connecting young entrepreneurs and established companies in Kochi, in 2014. He started the opportunity exchange platform with Young Chamber of Commerce. In 2017 the name of the chamber was changed from Young Chamber of Commerce to Crescent Chamber of Commerce and Industry. In 2017, Ansif Ashraf founded Fly With Me Mobile App LLP, a company where he was the CEO. On 21 February 2018, the family of

A. P. J. Abdul Kalam Avul Pakir Jainulabdeen Abdul Kalam ( ; 15 October 193127 July 2015) was an Indian aerospace scientist and statesman who served as the president of India from 2002 to 2007. Born and raised in a Muslim family in Rameswaram, Tamil Nadu, Kala ...

, former

President of India The president of India (ISO 15919, ISO: ) is the head of state of the Republic of India. The president is the nominal head of the executive, the first citizen of the country, and the commander-in-chief, supreme commander of the Indian Armed ...

, appointed Ansif Ashraf as Kerala State Co-ordinator for the A. P. J. Abdul Kalam International Foundation. and later that year, he became the Secretary General of the Kerala chapter of the foundation. In 2018, he bought Herald Media Network Limited, which owns the brand name British Herald, and founded a magazine by the same name. In 2019, a number of news outlets in India re-published the results of a survey first published by ''British Herald'', which claimed that

Narendra Modi Narendra Damodardas Modi (born 17 September 1950) is an Indian politician who has served as the Prime Minister of India, prime minister of India since 2014. Modi was the chief minister of Gujarat from 2001 to 2014 and is the Member of Par ...

was considered to be "the world's most powerful leader". Major publishers such as ''

Zee News Zee News is an Indian Hindi-language right-wing news channel owned by Subhash Chandra's Essel Group. It launched on 27 August 1999 and is the flagship channel of the Zee Media Corporation. The channel has been involved in several controve ...

'' and ''

News 18 Network18 Media & Investments Limited, (d/b/a Network18 Group) is an Indian media conglomerate owned by the Reliance Industries, headed by Mukesh Ambani. Rahul Joshi is the managing director, chief executive officer and group editor-in-chief, a ...

'' referred to ''British Herald'' as "a leading British magazine". However, investigations by the

fact-checking Fact-checking is the process of verifying the factual accuracy of questioned reporting and statements. Fact-checking can be conducted before or after the text or content is published or otherwise disseminated. Internal fact-checking is such che ...

websites

Alt News Alt News is an Indian non-profit fact checking website founded and run by former software engineer Pratik Sinha and Mohammed Zubair. It was launched on 9 February 2017 to combat fake news. Alt News was a signatory partner of the Internation ...

and BOOM Live showed that it was a relatively obscure website and that there was no information about the survey, which led to criticism of the way several large media houses had re-posted the news without checking its origin. Ashraf stated to BOOM Live that ''British Herald'' had not in fact claimed to be a "leading British magazine".

Death

Ansif Ashraf died from

COVID-19 Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a contagious disease caused by the coronavirus SARS-CoV-2. In January 2020, the disease spread worldwide, resulting in the COVID-19 pandemic. The symptoms of COVID‑19 can vary but often include fever ...

on Wednesday, 27 January 2021, in Sharjah, UAE. He was 37.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Ashraf, Ansif Businesspeople from Maharashtra Indian magazine editors 1983 births 2021 deaths Businesspeople from Kochi People from Thane Deaths from the COVID-19 pandemic in the United Arab Emirates