Journalist Shobha Warrier's latest book, ‘Battlefield India: 25 years of Politricks and Economix’ was launched at the Madras Reporters’ Guild in Chennai on Saturday, November 19. In the book, Shobha recounts the 25 years of her career between 1997 and 2022, when she reported politics, economics, and social welfare. The book also features her interviews with prominent personalities across fields, including former president of India R Venkataraman, agronomist Dr MS Swaminathan, cartoonist Abu Abraham, political commentator Cho Ramaswamy and Congress Member of Parliament, Thiruvananthapuram, Shashi Tharoor.
‘Battlefield India’ was launched by N Ram, former editor-in-chief of The Hindu, along with the director of The Hindu Publishing Group, Sashi Kumar, chairman of Asian College of Journalism, Ajit Balakrishnan, and BRP Bhaskar — founder of rediff.com and senior journalist. The launch was followed by a panel discussion on impartiality and neutrality in journalism, and the topic of choosing a side while reporting. N Ram, during the discussion, emphasised on the need for a "scientific approach" and verifying facts while reporting. The panel further talked about why the ethics and principles that are taught in journalism schools are not always implemented while reporting in real-time. "Many reporters use Google search as the source. So they stopped doing research and learning about the issue as the information is always available on the internet", N Ram said.
Shobha is the senior editorial director of reddif.com. She has been reporting on politics, gender, economics, health, public policy, and various other issues for over 40 years. One of the important issues that she covered for Rediff was the Sabarimala controversy. Shobha has also reported for the Sunday Observer, The Independent, The Hindu, The Asian Age and Eve’s Weekly.
‘Battlefield India’ is Shobha's fifth book in English. She is also the author of ‘Dreamchasers: Entrepreneurs from the South of the Vindhyas’, ‘The Little Flower Girl and Others’, His Days with Bapu, and ‘Dreamchasers: Women Entrepreneurs from the South of the Vindhyas’. She has also written several books in Malayalam including ‘Ramakundam’, ‘Meghana’, and others.