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Pankaj Jain on Muck Rack

Pankaj Jain

India, United States
As seen in: The Good Times Are Killing Us, The New York Times, BBC, HuffPost, The Times of India, Harvard University, The History Channel, The Indian Express, Patheos, KXAS-TV (Fort Worth, TX) and
Exploring Dharma, Jainism & Indian thought for the modern world | Prof & Director @FLAMEUniversity | Fulbright Fellow | 8 books | Featured: NYT, Morgan Freeman

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Pankaj Jain’s Biography

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Professor Pankaj Jain, PhD, is a renowned academic leader whose work has resonated globally across Sustainability, Jain Studies, Film Studies, and Diaspora Studies. With over 30 years of experience in academia and the corporate world, he has served as Head of Department (HoD) for Humanities and Languages. As the Director of The India Centre at FLAME University, he has led numerous initiatives to promote Indian culture and scholarship, including international conferences, research projects, and …

Pankaj Jain’s Journalist Portfolio

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The Ancient Origins of Diwali | HISTORY

The Ancient Origins of Diwali | HISTORY

Diwali, also known as the Festival of Lights, is primarily celebrated by followers of the Hindu, Sikh and Jai…

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Climate cinema is not new in India. What would it take for it to become mainstream?

Climate cinema is not new in India. What would it take for it to become mainstream?

India has a rich history of environmental films, mostly fiction, that were never looked at from an ecological…

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क्या अमरीका और नीदरलैंड में चलती है 'राम मुद्रा' - BBC News हिंदी

क्या अमरीका और नीदरलैंड में चलती है 'राम मुद्रा' - BBC News हिंदी

व्हाट्सऐप से लेकर सोशल मीडिया पर आपने ये ख़बर पढ़ी होगी, अब पढ़िए इसके पीछे का सच.

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The India Centre Voices - Times of India Voices

The India Centre Voices - Times of India Voices

India Centre

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Don't Fear Dying. Fear Violence!

Don't Fear Dying. Fear Violence!

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Pankaj Jain | HuffPost

Pankaj Jain | HuffPost

Read the latest work from Pankaj Jain.

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Articles

The word 'Guru' means heavy — and that changes everything

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By Pankaj Jain
| The Times of India Verified
News The word 'Guru' means heavy — and that changes everything This week, as millions marked Guru Purnima, most of us used a word we have said all our lives without once asking what it actually means. Business guru. Tech guru. Fitness guru, and now, inevitably, AI guru. The word slipped into English from Sanskrit so smoothly that it feels native. But here is what almost nobody knows: guru does not mean teacher. It does not even mean wise.
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A billion people, zero world cups: The myth India chose to believe

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By Pankaj Jain
| The Times of India Verified
As the 2026 World Cup thunders toward its final on July 19, more than a billion of us will watch a tournament we have never played in. India has qualified for the men’s World Cup exactly zero times. That absence is real. But the story we tell about it — the reason we repeat to one another, generation after generation — is not. And what a nation invents to explain its failures often says more than the failure itself.
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Bengal’s ‘egg war’ and what the idea of sattvik food really means

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By Pankaj Jain
| The Times of India Verified
A boiled egg has become a flashpoint in West Bengal. A move to revise some school mid-day-meal menus toward “sattvik” fare — with eggs taken off the plate — has been hailed by some as a return to tradition and condemned by others as imposed vegetarianism. The coinage now doing the rounds, “Dimocracy” (from dim, the Bengali word for egg), captures the heat of the moment. I will leave the politics and the policy to others.
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See all 8 licensed articles (9 Total)

Interview

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What was your first job as a journalist?

Research-based articles for various outlets

How is social media changing news?

By empowering everyone!

Who's your favorite fictional journalist?

Amitav Ghosh

Awards

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DANAM Book Prize

2012
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Fulbright-Nehru International Fellowship for Environmental Leadership

2012
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IIAS Fellowship

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