ThoughtWorks

The Media Development Foundation (MDF) and ThoughtWorks Technologies India Private Ltd. are pleased to announce the institution of the ThoughtWorks Chair Professor of Rural India and Digital Knowledge at the Asian College of Journalism, Chennai (ACJ). The Chair, first of its kind exclusively dedicated to journalism across all of rural India, was founded on June 1 this year.

The first holder of the Chair is P. Sainath, a journalist who has covered the Indian countryside full-time for 22 of the 35 years he has been in the profession. He has also been teaching and training journalists for well over two decades  –  including at the ACJ since its inception. As ThoughtWorks Chair Professor, he will continue working with and training journalists in covering rural India. He will particularly aim at taking the coverage of rural India to digital platforms, bringing rural voices to such platforms. For more on P. Sainath: http://psainath.org/about-p-sainath/

The ThoughtWorks Chair at the ACJ will engage with rural communities across India, and study, research and write about their labour, languages, skills, economies, histories and cultures. Under the guidance of the Chair, the students at ACJ will obtain an understanding of various forms of deprivation as well as its complex social, economic and political causes. They will learn how to document and cover rural India and seek to build connections between themselves and rural communities and create networks of students, journalists, teachers and others interested in rural India and rural Indians.

ThoughtWorks is a software company and a community of passionate, purpose-led individuals who seek to disruptively deliver technology that meets the clients’ toughest challenges, to revolutionize the IT industry and to create positive change.  For more on ThoughtWorks: www.thoughtworks.com