Our Team

PTI’s Fact-Checking operations are deeply embedded in our day-to-day editorial operations. We rely on our vast network of journalists and stringers to source, verify and report on a wide range of topics in line with our methodology.

In addition, we have a dedicated team for our fact-checking operations, the members of which are listed below. Our fact-checking team leverages our deep journalistic expertise across all our editorial desks and the feet on the ground to verify claims.

We also encourage and empower all our journalists to choose and verify a claim with reporting help and guidance from the Fact Checking team.

PTI’s fact-checking operations are led by Pratyush Ranjan (Head of Fact-checking and Digital Services, PTI). He is responsible for setting the vision, goals, and overall direction of PTI’s fact-checking operations. He is also responsible for day-to-day operations, including selecting the claims for fact-checking, editing investigations, training new fact-checkers, etc.

Pratyush Ranjan

Pratyush Ranjan has more than 19 years of experience in the digital media industry. His key expertise areas are Fact Checking, Digital & Multimedia Content Management (Hindi & English), Newsroom and Editorial Process Management, Cross-functional Team Leadership, Writing, Editing, Search Engine, and Social Media Optimisation, Use of Artificial Intelligence (AI) in newsrooms, etc.

Pratyush has been a certified fact checker and trainer at Google News Initiative’s India Training Network since 2018. He has been very active in conducting fact-check training sessions and trained thousands of people across the country in fact-checking and data verification.

He was part of a prestigious 6-month-long ‘JournalismAI’ global project (2020) for a comprehensive study of the role of Artificial Intelligence (AI) in the future of Journalism. It is a project of POLIS – the journalism think-tank of the London School of Economics and Political Science.

Pratyush has won Silver Award at the South Asian Digital Media Awards under the Best Covid-19 Project category for his exclusive interviews with India’s top medical experts on the Pandemic and Covid Misinfodemic. He conducted the series in collaboration with UNICEF India and the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare (Government of India) during the second wave of Covid-19 in India to spread health awareness.

He has received a certificate in Data Journalism from the East-West Center and two certificates in countering disinformation from CRDF-Global.

Pratyush also participated in the 6-month-long Newsroom Leadership programme by the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism. The Google News Initiative network supported the programme. He is highly passionate about using digital tools for storytelling in an immersive design and using Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning in content planning, production & distribution in the newsroom.

Abhinav Gupta

Abhinav Gupta has been part of the digital media industry for the past nine years and holds expertise in covering Indian politics and national and crime news. He has written many analytical pieces and opinionated articles on significant political developments and interviewed several leaders across party lines during his various stints at different media organisations. Abhinav has been trained by the certified fact checkers associated with Google News Initiative India Training network. He has attended fact-check training sessions and holds certificates of fact-check courses and digital journalism from GNI and Reuters.

Sajan Kumar

Sajan Kumar is a journalist, researcher, and fact-checker, who believes in maintaining the sanctity of facts and wants to create fact-check awareness among people about misinformation and its potential threats. He has done Post Graduation Diploma in Hindi Journalism from the Indian Institute of Mass Communication, New Delhi. Before joining PTI, he did his internship at a fact-checking organisation. Apart from this, he understands social media and digital journalism.

Press Trust Of India (PTI) is India's premier news agency, with a reach as vast as the Indian Railways'. It employs nearly 400 journalists and 500 stringers to cover almost every city and small town in India. Collectively, our journalists put out more than 1,000 stories and 250 photographs including graphics every day to feed the appetite of the diverse subscribers, who include the mainstream media, the specialized presses, research groups, companies, and government and non-governmental organizations.

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