Mr. Sampad Patnaik

Sampad Patnaik is a journalist and academic. He writes on politics, history, and culture. Currently a freelance journalist and columnist, he has worked in organizations, such as The Indian Express and Reuters. He has authored pieces in The Wire, Down to Earth, Open, Scroll, Khaleej Times, and Diplomat. Sampad also contributes to the margASIA journal of Culture published by the Centre for Asian Studies, Bhubaneswar.
In his nearly three-year-long stint as Assistant Editor with The Indian Express, Sampad has published more than 300 stories with the paper and provided in-depth coverage on general elections to Odisha’s 21 Lok Sabha seats and state legislative assembly. Other focus areas included political parties, agriculture, tribal affairs, and the environment.

As a business journalist with the Bangalore Bureau of Reuters, Sampad reported on mergers, acquisitions, quarterly reports, stake sales, bankruptcies, and corporate governance on companies listed on Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE), New York Stock Exchange (NYSE), and Nasdaq.  

Sampad is a panelist and moderator with Tata Lit Fest (Bhubaneswar). He has interviewed authors Amitav Ghosh, Ruskin Bond, Bachi Karkaria, Tony Joseph, and Chandrahaas Chowdhury. He recently conducted other interviews, for various platforms, with former Odisha CM Giridhar Gamang, Padma Bhushan Rajeev Sethi, author Manoranjan Byapari, and Indian Met Dept Director General Mrutyunjaya Mohapatra, among others.
Sampad was the recipient of the Weidenfeld Walters scholarship to study at the University of Oxford. The scholarship was established by Lord Weidenfeld of Weidenfeld and Nicolson Publishers and sponsored by the legendary American broadcast journalist Barbara Walters. He is a graduate of the Weidenfeld Leadership and Moral Philosophy Programme conducted by Sir Christopher Clark, presently Regius Professor of History at the University of Cambridge.

Sampad is the recipient of two Gold Medals, from Symbiosis International University and Ravenshaw University, for academic excellence.

Sampad has co-directed and produced “The Bitter Taste of Sugar”, a documentary on the plight of sugarcane farmers in Maharashtra, which was screened at the World Organic Food Festival (Germany) in 2013.