Pranav is a prize-winning freelance reporter specializing in the acquisition of public documents (FOIA) to reveal lawmaker neglect in the design of housing policies — and more generally, to probe the calamitous effects of public sector failures on underserved populations.
In his current role, Pranav covers global heath and development news for NPR’s Goats and Soda. He graduates this spring from Northwestern University with degrees in Journalism and Political Economy.
In his reportage, he’s obtained unpublished eviction files and gained courtroom access to shine light on the black box of Chicago’s eviction system; interviewed United Nations Statistics Divisions officials to reveal the structural reasons for a vast undercount of COVID-19 deaths in India; and broke news on the destructive effects of new locust swarms on small farmers in East Africa.
Thematically, Pranav is enraptured by character-driven stories about city justice—economic, and otherwise—that push readers to examine the nature of morality in metros. Stories he’s proud of bring obscured inequities to the fore, critically considering topics like poverty, race and public policy through a historical lens.
Prior to his current gig, Pranav interned at Invisibilia, NPR’s long-form narrative storytelling podcast, and for a joint project between the ACLU and the New Jersey Office of the Public Defender, supporting an effort to publicize police officer misconduct records.
In a bygone era, Pranav was a high school Public Forum debater, finishing his competitive career ranked 4th in the country. He likes art and to cook for his family. He speaks French, Tamil, and Hindi fluently, in addition to English