Ajit Anjum is a veteran Indian journalist with over 30 years of experience in the field of journalism. During his career, he has held senior positions in several leading news media houses including India Today, Aaj Tak, and News 24. With a desire to work independently, Ajit created a YouTube channel named after him in March 2020. On his YouTube channel, he uploads videos related to news and current topics and does extensive field reporting.
Wiki/Biography
Ajit Anjum was born on Monday, April 7, 1969 (52 years old in 2021) in Begusarai district, Bihar, India. His zodiac sign is Aries. As his father was frequently transferred, Ajit went to school in different cities. One of the schools he attended was Hajipur Town High School. He graduated from Darbhanga High School and then from Muzaffarpur Rangat Singh College, affiliated to Bihar University, with honors in history.
A young Ajit Anjum (right) with his college friends
Family and caste
Parents and siblings
His father Ramsagar Prasad Singh was a judge of the Bihar District Court. On March 20, 2011, Ramsagar died of a heart attack.
Ajit Anjum with his parents
Wife and children
Ajit Anjum’s wife Geeta Shree is also a journalist. They have a daughter named Jiya.
Ajit Anjum’s wife Geeta Shree and daughter Jiya
Ajit Anjum and his daughter Jiya
Profession
Ajit developed an interest in reading and writing news during his college years. His first article published in a newspaper was a letter to the editor, which he wrote to the editor of Patliputra Times. That was in 1987. He was still in college at that time. To understand journalism better, he started reading various popular journals and magazines of the time, such as Hindustan Daily and Times of India. At the same time, he collected field reports on issues in neighboring cities, wrote articles, and sent them to regional and national newspapers in Delhi. Gradually, newspapers started publishing his articles. This strengthened his determination to pursue a career in journalism. In his early journalism career, he worked as a freelance writer for many regional dailies, such as Dharmyug, Saptahik Hindustan, Dinmaan, and Ravivar. In 1989, he took up his first full-time job as a news writer for a regional newspaper, Chothi Duniya. At that time, one did not need a degree in journalism to be hired as a reporter. He did field reporting for Chothi Duniya during the 1989 Indian general elections.
In this photo from the early 90s, a young Ajit Anjum travels to Nainital on his Hero Honda motorcycle for ground reporting.
He was recruited by Amar Ujala to Delhi in 1990. From 1990 to 1994, he worked as a journalist for Amar Ujala.
broadcast
He joined BAG Films as a freelancer in 1994. His work included making investigative documentaries on various subjects for Indian television.
Ajit Anjum (right) snaps a video while making a documentary for BAG Films
After working as a freelancer for three months, he joined BAG Films as a permanent employee in 1995. He joined with a salary of Rs. 10,000. He joined Aaj Tak News Channel in 2002 and worked there for a year before rejoining BAG Films in 2001. He returned to BAG Films as Star News, a subsidiary of BAG Films, was planning many shows at the time. Over the next few years, he conceptualized several shows on Star News, including Pol Khol (launched in 2004), Red Alert and Sansani. In 2007, BAG Films launched News 24, a news channel, and appointed Ajit Anjum as its editor-in-chief.
In 2014, Ajit quit News 24 and took up the post of Managing Director of India Television.
He left India Television in 2017 and started doing freelance journalism. Later, Associated Broadcasting Corporation Private Limited (ABCPL) launched Hindi news channel TV9 Bharatvarsh in March 2019 and appointed Ajit Anjum as its consulting editor.
Ajit Anjum hosts News 24
A few months later, in September 2019, he left TV9 Bharatvarsh due to some differences with the channel. One of them (revealed by Ajit himself) was that his show on TV9 Bharatvarsh, ‘Debate with Ajit Anjum’ was cut down from one hour to half an hour. Ajit said in an interview that the management of TV9 Bharatvarsh was not comfortable with his criticism of the current BJP regime in India and the way he harshly questioned people from the ruling party. He also resigned from TV9 Bharatvarsh, ending his career with the television news channel. Here is a tweet he posted after his resignation.
Check out more content from TV9 channel. pic.twitter.com/sl6d8aPIyF
— Ajit Anjum (@ajitanjum) September 6, 2019
“Now I am free. Free from all restrictions and restraints. My anger was too much to bear,” he wrote in another tweet.
Youtube
Ajit Anjum revealed that the restrictions he faced while working in the mainstream media went against his journalistic ethics, so he decided to continue his journalism career on YouTube. In March 2020, he created a YouTube news channel under his own name “Ajit Anjum”.
According to an interview with Kumar Shyam in February 2021, Anjum said that he would never want to return to any television news channel considering the state of Indian media. He added that working independently on YouTube gave him great satisfaction and he considered it the golden age of his journalism career.
Awards and Achievements
- For his excellent reporting and coverage during the 2010 Bihar floods, he was awarded the prestigious Ramnath Goenka Award for Excellence in Journalism.
- In 2016, Fem magazine included him in the list of 50 most influential people in Bihar for his efforts in journalism.
- In 2017, he was awarded the National Dushont Kumar Award.
Facts/Trivia
- Ajit’s surname was not Anjum when he was born. His full name was Ajit Kumar till the early stage of his career. He changed his surname from ‘Kumar’ to ‘Anjum’ as the name Ajit Kumar was common among news writers at that time.
- Ajit met his wife Geeta Shree while working as a journalist at Amar Ujala in the early 1990s. Initially, Ajit’s family was against their marriage; however, after some time, they accepted it.
Young Ajit Anjum (standing in the back) with his wife and other journalists from the news media
- During his career, he has interviewed many well-known figures from all walks of life, including former Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, legendary Indian actor Amitabh Bachchan and many more.
Young Ajit Anjum prepares for an interview with Amitabh Bachchan
- Ajit Anjum travels in his Toyota Fortner SUV.
- He loves watching old Hindi movies and his favourite actor is Shah Rukh Khan.
Categories: Biography
Source: HIS Education