Editor

Arundhati Das

Email: ************@*****.***

Career Graph

<> Assistant Editor / SP GUIDE (Defense) PUBLICATIONS

(29 June, 2007 25 February, 2010; New Delhi, India)

<> Deputy Copy Editor / India Today (1 Aug., 2005 29 June, 2007; New Delhi, India)

<> Senior Sub-Editor / The Telegraph (1 May, 2002 15 July, 2005; Kolkata, India)

<> Content Manager & Website Developer / www.timesofindia.com & www.indiatimes.com

(22 Jan., 2001 15 April, 2002; New Delhi, India)

<> Correspondent & Copy Editor / Down to Earth 16 August, 2000 10 January, 2001; New Delhi, India)

<> Sub-Editor / The Asian Age (7 Feb., 1995 14 Aug., 2000; New Delhi, India)

<> R&D Officer / Stex Software Corporation (7 March 1994 6 February, 1995; Kolkata, India)

Work Experience

SP’s <> India Today <> The Telegraph <> The Times of India <> Down To Earth <> The Asian Age

<> Active involvement and participation in shows (India Today Conclave, Delhi, 2006 & 2007; Defence Systems & Equipment International Exhibition 2007, London) and seminars (4th Indo-US Economic Summit, Delhi)

<> Story selection and extensive editing; page layout, with special emphasis on relevant photographs, headline, straplines, blurbs, captions and other such elements.

<> Reporting and research on political/crime/defense/entertainment/feature/environment

<> Co-ordination between reporters and photographers; news tracking and assimilation

<> Editing news reports, quality inputs and identifying scopes for relevant snapshots

<> Story and photograph selection; page layout and designing for print media

<> Promotion of the various SP’s publications SP’s Military Yearbook, SP’s Aviation, SP’s Naval Forces, SP’s Land Forces in seminars, conferences, symposiums and various other interactive sessions involving the industry and military organizations

Website Experience

<> Reporting, content development, copy editing and news update for www.timesofindia.com and www.indiatimes.com

<> Reporting, content development and marketing of a food and lifestyle site www.foodiezone.com (in Delhi)

<> Similar responsibilities for www.greengurus.com (in Delhi), this time for stories relating to plants (indoor and outdoor) and the environment.

Computer Knowledge

QuarkXPress, Adobe InDesign, Photoshop, Microsoft Excel, Microsoft Word, Outlook Express

Languages Known

English, Hindi & Bengali (Written & Spoken)

Educational Qualifications

<> MBA degree Visva Bharati University, Shantiniketan, West Bengal, India

<> Graduation (Bachelor Of Arts) Shri Shikshayatan College, Kolkata, India

<> Higher Secondary (Science) Jogamaya Devi College, Kolkata, India

<> I.C.S.E. St. Joseph’s Convent, Chandannagar, West Bengal, India

At Leisure

<> Reading <> Travelling <> Socializing <> Photography

Career Canvas

Fifteen years and counting, my journey in the media industry commenced in 1995 with The Asian Age, where my very survival as a trainee journalist depended on two primary parameters: speed and accuracy. Also, the momentum I gathered as the evening progressed. So, be it gathering news (mainly crime and politics) or updating news reports with the latest development or, more importantly, designing and finalizing the pages on QuarkXPress deadline and precision were the essence. Fresh out of college, the experience was exhilarating and terrifying in parts. Suffice it to say, it was baptism by fire.

After the dervish-like whirl in The Asian Age, Down to Earth seemed calmer. Seemed. For, I was to soon learn that the perceived tranquility was merely a camouflage for the daring initiatives powered by the vision and zeal of a genius, the late Mr Anil Agarwal, founder of the NGO Centre for Science and Environment. Deeply inspired by his enthusiasm and determination in environmental pursuits, I engaged in studying, analyzing and reporting on the state of the Indian environment encompassing land, air and water. For the magazine, I contributed and framed various articles, including the mangrove forests of Madhya Pradesh which is home to a rapidly dwindling number of tribal groups; violation of the Coastal Regulation (CRZ); and air pollution in New Delhi. The last went on to become a crucial rallying point for the NGO, fuelling a slugfest between the organization and the Delhi Government which was ultimately convinced to run all public transport on CNG.

My next stint, in The Times of India, plunged me into a new terrain where deadline was defined as “the very minute the story broke”. Reporting and updating the websites timesofindia.com and indiatimes.com in HTML, days and nights blurred into each other as news poured in non-stop. The year 2002 also presented the much coveted opportunity to work in The Telegraph, Kolkata. Opting for the newsdesk proved to be a revelation in more ways than one the most significant being an intense pride in editing stories meticulously, with attention to the minutest detail. Prior to this, as a crime and political reporter, the “desk” in a print operation was to me an unknown territory. The Telegraph “newsdesk” was an eye-opener. Reporters were required to do little else besides file information and data to the last accurate detail in whatever language they deemed English. The story came alive and grew muscle (literally and figuratively!) at the “newsdesk”. At the end of my stint, three years later, I was better able to appreciate the immense and crucial contribution of a diligent army of sub-editors towards achieving the lofty ideals of journalism.

Soon after and for a short while, I edited the Kolkata issue of The Indian Express before returning to Delhi in 2005 with India Today. By this time, having absorbed to a large extent the broader parameters and finer nuances of the publication operation of both newspapers and newsmagazines, I was increasingly involved in the core functions involving news assimilation, comprehensive event coverage and page design. After close to two years in India Today, I ventured into the challenging genre of defense journalism with SP Guide Publications as Assistant Editor for its flagship journals SP’s Military Yearbook, SP’s Aviation, SP’s AirBuz, SP’s Naval Forces and SP’s Land Forces. I was working at the company till February 2010.

Today I look forward to resuming the exhilarating routine of juggling words and racing against deadline!

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