NRI PULSE STAFF REPORT
NEW YORK — Indian journalists and storytellers were among the winners at the 2026 Pulitzer Prizes, with Aniruddha Ghosal emerging as one of the Indian faces behind one of the year’s most consequential investigative projects, while Anand RK and Suparna Sharma earned honors for a groundbreaking graphic investigation rooted in India.
Ghosal, an Indian journalist with The Associated Press, was part of the Pulitzer-winning team recognized for International Reporting. The investigation, titled Made in America, Watched Worldwide, examined the global expansion of surveillance technology and how tools developed by American tech firms were adopted by governments around the world.
The Pulitzer-winning AP team included Dake Kang, Garance Burke, Byron Tau, Aniruddha Ghosal, and contributor Yael Grauer. According to AP, the three-year investigation uncovered how U.S.-made technologies helped shape mass surveillance systems in China and later found secretive applications inside the United States, including by the U.S. Border Patrol.
For Ghosal—an Indian journalist currently based in Southeast Asia for AP—the honor marks a significant milestone for Indian representation in global investigative journalism. AP’s own profile describes him as its Asia business and climate reporter based in Hanoi.
In a separate category, Mumbai-based illustrator Anand RK and veteran Indian investigative journalist Suparna Sharma shared the Pulitzer Prize for Illustrated Reporting and Commentary alongside Natalie Obiko Pearson of Bloomberg News.
Their winning work, trAPPed, used graphic storytelling and investigative reporting to document the case of a neurologist in India who fell victim to a growing form of cyber fraud known as “digital arrest,” in which scammers psychologically manipulate victims through phone-based intimidation.
The Pulitzer committee called trAPPed “a riveting account of a neurologist in India held under ‘digital arrest’ by her phone, reporting that uses visuals and words to cast light on the growing global challenges of surveillance and digital scams.”
According to the Pulitzer Board, Anand RK is a Mumbai-based illustrator and former Eisner Award winner, while Sharma is a freelance investigative journalist with more than three decades of experience covering corruption, crime, disasters, and accountability issues across India.
This year’s Pulitzer honors highlighted not only the growing presence of Indian journalists on the world stage, but also the increasingly global nature of stories emerging from India — stories that now sit at the intersection of technology, democracy, privacy, and human rights.
