Pankaj Mishra Journalist and Co‑founder
Pankaj Mishra is a journalist and co-founder of FactorDaily, with a career spanning over two decades and multiple newsrooms, from The Economic Times and Mint to TechCrunch and Times of India. Pankaj sees, hears, and feels stories and then shares them in a way that creates a connection, whether with one person or a wider audience. For Pankaj, one attentive listener is not just a tick mark on the scale of readership but a meaningful connection. "Even one is an audience," he often says, a philosophy that has become the cornerstone of FactorDaily's approach to journalism. Pankaj takes storytelling into physical spaces, creating intimate environments where stories aren't just told; they're experienced. Whether it's a community meetup or a one-on-one session on a train journey, he finds fulfilment in these personal exchanges. His work isn't confined to the written word; it comes alive in sound, audio, and digital spaces, each format offering a different facet of the story.

Stories by
Pankaj Mishra

From Loss to Liberation: How Dhiraj Rajaram Fought to Reclaim His Company and Himself

04 December 2023
Dhiraj Rajaram's Battle for Mu Sigma - A gripping story of personal struggles, mental resilience, and a daring buyback of nearly a billion dollars.

FINDING SHAMNAD BASHEER

22 December 2022
Exploring the enduring legacy of Shamnad Basheer, whose life's journey reshaped India's legal landscape and inspired a generation of social change-makers.

Beware of Entrepreneurship

17 October 2022
Entrepreneurship is like a ghost fight. You are fighting with your own ghost every day. In this heartfelt account Sunny Ghosh talks about the struggles of entrepreneurship beyond the usual chase of unicorn statuses and success stories.

How the Phone You Chucked is Killing Seelampur

11 January 2021
The story of a teenage boy Aman is common among the 30,000 men, women and children who expose themselves to toxic fumes, acid splashes and lasting injuries in Seelampur, the town where all our old phones go to die.

Meet India’s women Open Source warriors

05 February 2018
“Shut the f**k up”“Feminism sucks” As Vaishali Thakker, a 23-year old open source programmer looked over the hall filled with around 200 people, she didn’t know how to react to what she had just heard. Thakker was one of the five women on the stage at PyCon India 2017, a conference on the use of […]

India’s big data hunt for cures to its mental, ageing related diseases

27 November 2017
As India’s population rapidly ages, a crisis looms. This story aims at understanding the complexities of India's aging population.

The making of Girish Mathrubootham

17 April 2017
Uncovering the untold story of a quiet visionary, this piece explores the journey of Girish Mathrubootham who played a pivotal role in propelling the country to the forefront of the global software industry.

Death of a startup founder

30 September 2016
Arvindkumar Alagarswamy, a passionate entrepreneur, battling late-stage pancreatic cancer, founded Attune Technologies to revolutionize healthcare software solutions. This story, a tale of resilience, innovation and the human spirit, explores his life, his company and the challenges faced by his family and team in the wake of his loss.

This is Seelampur: India’s Digital Underbelly Where Your Phones Go To Die

26 May 2016
Nearly a quarter of India’s three million tonnes of e-waste generated every year is dumped in Seelampur. If you live in north India, chances are high that the smartphone you bought last year and trashed because something better came along, went to die here.