Rahul Roushan

Rahul Roushan (born 29 January 1980) is a former journalist, entrepreneur and consultant who currently serves as the Chief Strategy Officer of Swarajya magazine and runs the libertarian news site OpIndia.com. He is the founder of the current affairs satire portal Faking News, and served as its editor from 2008 to 2016. Originally from Patna, Roushan is now based in Mumbai. He is an alumnus of Indian Institute of Mass Communication and IIM Ahmedabad.

Life

Roushan comes from the city of Patna in Bihar. He graduated in Mathematics from Patna University in year 2001, and then received a postgraduate diploma in broadcast journalism from the Indian Institute of Mass Communication (IIMC) in New Delhi in 2002. Rahul is also an alumnus of IIM Ahmedabad, having completed its flagship course PGP (Post Graduate Program in Management) (equivalent to MBA) in 2007. Roushan is settled in Mumbai, where he lives with his wife.

Work

After graduating from IIMC, Roushan worked as a copy editor, bulletin producer, and news anchor with the Hindi news channel Sahara Samay for two and a half years. He left journalism to pursue higher studies at IIM Ahmedabad. He turned an entrepreneur while still being a student at IIM Ahmedabad, when he launched crickstock.com, a virtual gaming website based on cricket, ahead of the 2007 Cricket World Cup.

Crickstock.com was sold off to a US based online gaming company subsequently while Roushan worked as an independent management consultant on other projects. One such project was helping the Bihar government in setting up a management institute in Patna in the year 2008.

Inspired by the American news satire website The Onion, Roushan started Faking News in 2008, when he was working as an independent consultant in New Delhi. Roushan wrote under the pseudonym Pagal Patrakaar (Hindi for crazy journalist). In 2009, the blog was turned into a full-fledged website. In 2013, Faking News was acquired by Firstpost, a news portal of the Network 18 group, for an undisclosed amount. Roushan served as its editor till September 2016, when he joined Swarajya magazine as Chief Strategy Officer.

In addition, Roushan has also served as the head of content services for Singapore-based Affle Pte Ltd, and has been a consultant with Pi Communications and RedCube Consulting Group.

Influence

Priyanka Sharma wrote in the Business Standard that several authors followed Roushan's lead to start similar ventures as Faking News, including the founders of www.newsthatmattersnot.com and The UnReal Times. Sonali Acharjee wrote that Roushan is popular on Twitter and that his followers always expect him to post something witty or clever. His humorous tweets are often cited by Indian news websites.

Recognition and awards

• Recognized and felicitated by Indian Institute of Mass Communication in its annual alumni meet IIMC Connections (2015).
• Invited as speaker at various TEDx events, such as at BITS Pilani, MIT Manipal, IIM Ranchi, IIFT Delhi, XLRI Jamshedpur.
• Invited as guest and speaker at various journalism and management events such as at School of Journalism & Communication, Manipal University, at management conclave of IIM Kozhikode, at Litfest of IIM Udaipur, at the Great Indian Film and Literature Festival (GIFLIF).