In a list compiled by Times Magazine, AltNews founders Mohammed Zubair and Pratik Sinha are among the “favourites” to win the Nobel Peace Prize. The prize winner will be announced on Friday at 11 a.m. local time in Oslo, Norway, following the final selection by the five-person Norwegian Nobel Committee, which is appointed by the Norwegian parliament.

Also Read| Nobel Peace Prize: AltNews founders Mohammed Zubair, Pratik Sinha nominated

Who is Pratik Sinha?

Pratik Sinha is a former software engineer who founded Alt News in 2017. He is the son of Mukul Sinha, lawyer and the founder-president of Jan Sangharsh Manch. 

As per Wikibio, Pratik Sinha was born in Ahemdabad Gujarat. Pratik Sinha’s mother is Gujarati, from Ahmedabad, and his father is Bengali. Mukul Sinha, Pratik Sinha’s father, was an Indian human rights activist and lawyer at the Gujarat High Court in Ahmedabad who died on May 12, 2014, of lung cancer. Nirjhari Sinha, Pratik’s mother, was a scientist for 35 years. Nirjhari Sinha is also a director of the Pravda Media Foundation, a non-profit organisation that operates Alt News.

He studied engineering at the Bangalore Institute of Technology, which is affiliated with the Visvesvaraya Technological University, in Bengaluru, Karnataka, from 1999 to 2003. Sinha moved to the United States after finishing his formal education to pursue a career as a software engineer. He later relocated to Vietnam. He returned to Ahmedabad in March 2013. A pivotal moment in his life occurred in 2016, when the Jan Sangharsh Manch, his parents’ civil liberties organisation, joined forces with the Una Dalit Atyachar Ladai Samiti for a march from Ahmedabad to Una. Sinha recognised his inner desire to pursue a career in journalism while documenting the march.

Also Read| Karl Barry Sharpless becomes fifth person to win two Nobel prizes

He began working at Day Begins Engineering Innovations Pvt Ltd after finishing his formal education. He was a Senior Software Engineer at Ubigtech Software Private Ltd in Bengaluru from 2003 to 2005. He worked at Ubiqtech on product design and development of a Firewall and VPN for the company’s flagship product. He worked as a technical staff member at Arada Systems in Bengaluru from 2004 to 2009. He held several positions at Arada Systems, including Software Developer, Kernel Engineer, and Manager of the Enterprise Support Group. He later worked as a Senior Software Engineer for Cloudleaf, Inc. He began working as a freelancer for the software development company Humbug in Vietnam in 2009.

He worked as a Senior Embedded Software Engineer at ReadMe Systems Inc in Ahmedabad from August 2013 to February 2014. Pratik Sinha and Mohammed Zubair co-founded the Alt News website in Ahmedabad on February 9, 2017 to combat the phenomenon of fake news. Zubair only assisted Sinha in running the site for about a year while continuing to work for Nokia. Zubair finally left Nokia in September 2018 to become a full-time employee of Alt News. Sinha announced in 2022 that he would open a branch in Kolkata, West Bengal.

Also Read| Nobel Prize: 3 lesser-known facts about the Chemistry award

In 2019, he co-wrote the book India Misinformed: The True Story, which seeks to identify the primary drivers of fake news, expose the propaganda machinery, and familiarise readers with techniques for detecting fake news.