N. Ram
Encyclopedia
Narasimhan Ram is an India
India
India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...

n journalist
Journalist
A journalist collects and distributes news and other information. A journalist's work is referred to as journalism.A reporter is a type of journalist who researchs, writes, and reports on information to be presented in mass media, including print media , electronic media , and digital media A...

. Ram has been the Managing-Director of The Hindu
The Hindu
The Hindu is an Indian English-language daily newspaper founded and continuously published in Chennai since 1878. According to the Audit Bureau of Circulations, it has a circulation of 1.46 million copies as of December 2009. The enterprise employed over 1,600 workers and gross income reached $40...

since 1977 and its Editor-in-Chief since June 27, 2003. Ram also heads the other publications of The Hindu Group such as Frontline
Frontline (magazine)
Frontline is a fortnightly English language magazine published by The Hindu Group of publications from Chennai, India. Narasimhan Ram is the editor-in-chief of the magazine. As a current affairs magazine, it covers domestic and International news. Frontline gives a prominent place to various...

, The Hindu Business Line and Sportstar
Sportstar
Sportstar is a weekly sports magazine published in India by the publishers of The Hindu. Its headquarters is in Chennai. The magazine covers sports in India. It also has an extended and lengthy coverage of cricket, the unofficial national sport of India...

, and has been awarded the Padma Bhushan
Padma Bhushan
The Padma Bhushan is the third highest civilian award in the Republic of India, after the Bharat Ratna and the Padma Vibhushan, but comes before the Padma Shri. It is awarded by the Government of India.-History:...

 by the Government of India. He is referred to as a left-wing editor and known to believe in left
Left-wing politics
In politics, Left, left-wing and leftist generally refer to support for social change to create a more egalitarian society...

/communist ideology.

Early life and education

Ram was born on May 4, 1945 in Madras, British India. He was the eldest son of G. Narasimhan
G. Narasimhan
Gopalan Narasimhan was an Indian journalist and entrepreneur who served as the Managing Director of The Hindu from 1959 to 1977. He is the father of the present Editor-in-Chief N. Ram.- Early life :...

 who served as Managing-Director of The Hindu
The Hindu
The Hindu is an Indian English-language daily newspaper founded and continuously published in Chennai since 1878. According to the Audit Bureau of Circulations, it has a circulation of 1.46 million copies as of December 2009. The enterprise employed over 1,600 workers and gross income reached $40...

from 1959 to 1977. Ram is a great-grandson of S. Kasturi Ranga Iyengar
S. Kasturi Ranga Iyengar
Sesha Iyengar Kasturi Ranga Iyengar was an Indian lawyer, Indian independence activist, politician and journalist who served as the Managing Director of The Hindu from April 1, 1905 till his death in December 1923....

, the patriarch of the Kasturi family.

Ram graduated from Loyola College
Loyola College, Chennai
Loyola College is a Jesuit institution in Chennai, India. The college admits undergraduates and post-graduates and offers degrees in the liberal arts, sciences and commerce. It is an autonomous institution affiliated with the University of Madras.-History:...

, Chennai, with a bachelor's degree in arts in 1964, received a master's degree from Presidency College, Chennai
Presidency College, Chennai
Presidency College is an arts, law and science college in the city of Chennai in Tamil Nadu, India. Established as the Madras Preparatory School on October 15, 1840 and later, upgraded to a high school and then, graduate college, the Presidency College is one of the oldest government arts colleges...

, in 1966, and later an M.S. in comparative journalism from the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism
Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism
The Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism is one of Columbia's graduate and professional schools. It offers three degree programs: Master of Science in journalism , Master of Arts in journalism and a Ph.D. in communications...

. He actively participated in the students politics. He was vice-president of the Students Federation of India
Students Federation of India
Students Federation of India is one of the major student organisations in India. SFI is politically linked to the Communist Party of India . Founded in 1970, it claimed a membership strength of nearly 4.2 million school and university students as of 2010.SFI is currently led at the All India level...

 (SFI), which is politically linked to the Communist Party of India (Marxist)
Communist Party of India (Marxist)
The Communist Party of India is a political party in India. It has a strong presence in the states of Kerala, West Bengal and Tripura. As of 2011, CPI is leading the state government in Tripura. It leads the Left Front coalition of leftist parties in various states and the national parliament of...

, at the time of its formation in 1970 in Thiruvananthapuram.

Journalism career

Beginning his career in The Hindu as an Associate Editor in 1977, Ram was made the Washington Correspondent in 1980. His association with Frontline dates back to 1984, when the magazine was started. N Ram has become famous as a journalist during his writings in exposing Bofors Scandal
Bofors scandal
The Bofors scandal was a major corruption scandal in India in the 1980s; the then Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi and several others were accused of receiving kickbacks from Bofors AB for winning a bid to supply India's 155 mm field howitzer...

 during the reign of late Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi.

Prior to his current position as the editor-in-chief of the Hindu daily, Ram had served as the Editor of Frontline magazine and Sportstar
Sportstar
Sportstar is a weekly sports magazine published in India by the publishers of The Hindu. Its headquarters is in Chennai. The magazine covers sports in India. It also has an extended and lengthy coverage of cricket, the unofficial national sport of India...

 between 1991 and 2003.

Commendations

Ram's contribution to journalism has been recognized by a number of awards. These include the Asian Investigative Journalist of the Year (1990) Award conferred by the Press Foundation of Asia at the "One Asia Assembly", Bofors Case, the disciplined application of his journalistic idealism and the impact of his revelations on the Indian political scene"; the B.D. Goenka
B.D. Goenka
B.D. Goenka was son of Ramnath Goenka, a newspaper baron of India. He was a manager of the The Indian Express and had been described as the "inveterate foe" of the Nehru family".He died as a result of a cardiac arrest. In his memory the "B.D...

, 1989, shared with Chitra Subramaniam
Chitra Subramaniam
Chitra Subramaniam is an Indian journalist famous for uncovering the Bofors scandal.-Personal life:She was born in Sindri, India. She was educated at Lady Sri Ram College with a Bachelors in English Literature and received her Masters in journalism from Stanford University, California, USA...

; in the interest of the nation"; and XLRI
XLRI
The XLRI School of Business and Human Resources, Jamshedpur is a graduate business school in Jamshedpur, India. Established in 1949, XLRI is arguably the oldest business school in India and is regarded as consistently among the top 5 business schools of the country...

’s First JRD Tata Award for Business Ethics, awarded at this management institute’s 46th Annual Convocation at Jamshedpur on March 23, 2003.

Personal life

Ram's first wife Susan was an English woman who came to south India as a research student. Like Ram, she was (and remains) an atheist with a Left perspective on politics. After their marriage, Susan worked as a teacher, a freelance journalist, an editor for Oxford University press publications in India and a television presenter. As a husband and wife team, both published the first volume of a biography on R.K.Narayan, the eminent Indian writer. Their daughter Vidya Ram, herself a journalist, was a Journalism topper at Columbia University in New York and even won a Pulitzer fellowship for Journalism.
After the divorce from Susan, Ram married Mariam Chandy, who is the founder and Managing Director of TNQ Books and Journals (an ePublishing company that works on the leading scientific journals of the world).
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