@Reuters journo tracking India's tech sector. My work revolves around supply chains, AI, and big tech's India whereabouts. Ramnath Goenka '26, SAJA '25.
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Joined April 2012
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Reuters has won the Ramnath Goenka Award, India’s most prestigious journalism honor, for our investigation revealing Foxconn's rejection of married women from iPhone assembly jobs.
What made this recognition even more special was a shout-out from Raj Kamal Jha.
Jha called it “good journalism” at a time when, as he put it, “we have all got spooked” and are “very unsure of what good journalism is.”
AI models under test broke into Indian organisations' live systems and read confidential records undetected, India's cybersecurity agency said, the country's first such official account after similar incidents of rogue AI behavior worldwide.
Munsif Vengattil retweeted
Musk vows affordable Starlink in India days before Ambani's record Jio IPO reut.rs/4yc6RcA reut.rs/4yc6RcA
Munsif Vengattil retweeted
Tushar Shetty bought a 21st-floor flat for the green views in Mumbai. Today he looks out at bare red earth, cleared for the Amazon site. "I would not have bought the house if I had known," he told @Reuters
Amazon is building one of India's largest data centres metres from people's homes near Mumbai. Residents want it gone.
India is betting big on becoming the physical backbone of the AI age. Amazon, Google and Microsoft are pouring billions in, chasing Modi's ambition to host the world's data.
But the facilities are landing next to where people live. Our reporting found protests outside the Mumbai site, opposition politicians joining the fight
Read the Reuters deep dive on data centre boom in India. reut.rs/4hKJLUj
With @VibhutiSharmas, @MunsifV.
Happy to share that our Reuters team has won @sajahq's Outstanding Business Reporting award for the second year running.
The recognition is for a series of stories from 2025, centered on India's stricter tech regulatory regime and the behind-the-scenes disputes it drew from the world's largest technology companies. Reported by me, @adityakalra and @arpanc_, and edited by David Crawshaw.
Judges' remarks:
"India vs Big Tech was our clear, unanimous winner, and a standout on every one of the SAJA criteria. It is well-researched, exclusive and important, and it appears to have more and better material than anything else published on the subject. The exclusivity was striking: the reporters broke news that had never been reported before, and did it with depth. The volume of documentation and sourcing behind the work was impressive, along with the ability to tie the coverage to the larger theme of Indian policy and politics so that the reader understands why it matters.
This was not a single scoop but a sustained investigation built on primary documents, including minutes of closed-door meetings and non-public court filings, with a diversity of sources across companies, government and civil society. It also had measurable impact, including the reversal of the smartphone-app mandate."
Links to the stories:
How CCTV makers were jolted when India demanded hardware and software clearance amid Chinese spying fears
tinyurl.com/mm7tvzeu
Musk vs Modi: how X took on India's content-takedown system
tinyurl.com/bw6enssc
An unpublicized order to preload the state-run Sanchar Saathi app on every smartphone, Apple's resistance, and the order's reversal within days
tinyurl.com/bdu4bcyj
🏆 We’re thrilled to announce the winners of the 2026 SAJA Awards!
This year's honorees demonstrated the power of deeply reported, thoughtful storytelling, with stories spanning across borders that brought diverse perspectives to light.
Winners: @cbcsteve, @adityakalra, @MunsifV, @arpanc_, @hali1189, @NihaMasih, @darjeelok95, @tankadhakal, @aparna596
Congratulations to these outstanding journalists and documentary filmmakers! Read more about them here: saja.org/2026-award-winners
Join us in celebrating them and their incredible work at the 2026 SAJA Awards ceremony and gala on Oct. 24. Purchase your tickets here: saja.org/event-6813592
We’re grateful to everyone who submitted their work and to our judges for their time and commitment to the review process.
Munsif Vengattil retweeted
India has banned the sale of internet-connected CCTV cameras that lack testing clearance. But hundreds of unlicensed CCTVs, including Hikvision and Dahua models, are listed on Amazon and Flipkart in India, Reuters found. Following questions from us, the e-commerce firms have launched a review.
Over 700 internet cameras lacked BIS certification, mandatory since April. Unapproved online sales are a "serious concern," former cybersecurity chief Gulshan Rai said.
Dahua's Imou even has a dedicated page on Amazon. Since Tuesday, at least a dozen listings have been removed from the e-commerce platforms, including at least two models from Hikvision's EZVIZ brand, which Amazon now shows as "currently unavailable".
Other listings included Maizic Smarthomes, which describes itself as India's best-selling AI security brand. None of its 138 "wifi camera" offerings on Amazon, including some slotted inside bulbs, had an Indian approval, the standards bureau's website showed.
reuters.com/world/amazon-wal… With @MunsifV, edits @kate_mayberry
Google will start reporting content flagged as child sexual abuse material to Indian authorities directly, breaking from a global practice under which such reports are first routed through a U.S. non-profit.
The move follows a similar decision by Meta last week.
Munsif Vengattil retweeted
Apple is facing an Indian consumer regulator investigation over iOS 18 complaints and software warranty terms....
The Central Consumer Protection Authority says Apple's iOS 18 rollout left green, pink and white lines across iPhone screens and knocked out microphones -- and that consumers were then charged "exorbitant amounts" for repairs "despite the issues stemming from the company's software upgrade". It has questioned the warranty terms of Apple software.
Apple has pushed back hard in confidential letters. It found no systemic issues with iOS 18. And the clause at the heart of the case -- that software comes with no warranty at all -- is what Sony, Samsung and most of the industry already say.
"A requirement that every issue ... be treated as a breach of an absolute warranty would effectively convert any software provider into an insurer against all technological risk," Apple told investigators.
New Delhi on July 29 escalated the matter for a "detailed investigation" by the CCPA probe wing.
reuters.com/business/retail-…
Indian police will question Google over security lapses after busting a criminal network that created and managed 500,000+ fake Gmail accounts.
Some of it were used to send bomb threats to Gujarat state offices.
reuters.com/world/indian-pol…
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FalconFeeds identified multiple eBay listings offering gender-prediction kits for delivery to India products whose use is prohibited under Indian law and alerted Reuters.
Following the alert and Reuters’ investigation, eBay removed nine listings, including products from SneakPeek and Peekaboo, and launched an internal review into how they were available for sale in India.
The listings, priced from $6.99 to $156.59, were available for delivery to Indian addresses.
The findings highlight a broader challenge for global digital marketplaces: ensuring products restricted under local laws cannot bypass geographic, shipping and marketplace controls.
Read the Reuters investigation 👇
reuters.com/world/india/ebay…
@MunsifV
India banned gender-prediction tests in 1994 to curb sex-selective abortion. Reuters found kits from SneakPeek and Peekaboo still being sold to Indian buyers on eBay.
After we sent questions, eBay took the listings down. reuters.com/world/india/ebay…
Sexually explicit ads to lure users into downloading malware that steals banking credentials and drains bank accounts — that's the scheme India's cybercrime agency flagged on Monday, tied to paid Facebook and Instagram ads.
Meta removed dozens of matching ads after Reuters flagged them. We found nearly 40 still active, some leading to a fake video app requiring an APK sideload outside the Play Store — the same method described in the advisory.
Meta had projected scam ads would bring in ~$16 billion, or 10% of its 2024 revenue, per Reuters' earlier reporting.
reuters.com/world/meta-remov…
This story only gets better.
Coca-Cola India executive Mili Bhattacharya argued that warning labels were unnecessary because Indian doctors had done a good job teaching their patients what food should be avoided.
A can of Fanta sold in London has 63 calories. Buy the same brand in India, and it contains three times as much sugar. It also includes artificial dye, whose presence in food products in Europe requires a prominent health warning.
In India, the colorant’s presence is noted merely in small print on the back of the can. That suits some of the world’s biggest companies, which have long resisted Indian efforts to mandate nutritional warnings on the front of packaged products reut.rs/4wOp5QT
Munsif Vengattil retweeted
A can of Fanta sold in London has 63 calories. Buy the same brand in India, and it contains three times as much sugar. It also includes artificial dye, whose presence in food products in Europe requires a prominent health warning.
In India, the colorant’s presence is noted merely in small print on the back of the can. That suits some of the world’s biggest companies, which have long resisted Indian efforts to mandate nutritional warnings on the front of packaged products reut.rs/4wOp5QT
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Tukaram Mundhe -- an Indian bureaucrat with a chevron moustache and, unusually, a fan following.
Mundhe, 51, has torn through Mumbai's food businesses -- Domino's, McDonald's, Pizza Hut, court canteens, cricket clubs -- nobody has been spared. His raids go viral daily as his team releases pictures of stained walls, cockroaches, rats, expired food.
Mundhe has touched a raw nerve -- Indians have long been frustrated with unsafe food. Fear of Mundhe is spreading.
"Those who try to not comply will face what is expected from the regulator," he told Reuters. A NEWSMAKER.
tinyurl.com/4f9d8bzk
Munsif Vengattil retweeted
"ANDROID GOD MODE".
India has ordered Google to shut down hundreds of accounts on its Firebase platform after finding a pattern of criminals misusing the service to impersonate major banks and defraud people. Takedown of 57 websites and databases hosted on Firebase ordered in August alone
tinyurl.com/4n9frey8 @MunsifV
Google’s Firebase is now on India home ministry's radar.
India's @Cyberdost in recent months ordered hundreds of Firebase-hosted sites and accounts taken down through dozens of notices to Google, according to a source and documents reviewed by Reuters.
reuters.com/world/india/indi…
