Currently with The Hindu, Ananth is a journalist who writes extensively about foreign affairs. Previously, he was a fellow at the Brookings Institution India Center, where his research focus was India-China economic relations. Before that, Ananth was based in Beijing for nine years as the China correspondent for The Hindu newspaper and later as the China Bureau Chief for the India Today Group, which is India’s biggest media organization with English television channel India Today Television and Hindi-language channel Aaj Tak reaching more than 50 million people.

Ananth’s reporting from Beijing has taken him to all but three of China’s 33 provinces and regions, and his articles focused on China’s foreign policy, domestic politics, neighbourhood diplomacy and ethnic minorities. He is one of the few foreign journalists to have interviewed Chinese Premier Li Keqiang, the Foreign Minister, Defence Minister and other Chinese leaders.

Ananth holds a master’s degree in History from the University of Chicago, where he studied the relationship between the film industry and politics in southern India, and a bachelor’s degrees in History and Economics from the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA).

His research as an AsiaGlobal Fellow explored China’s Belt and Road Initiative and the impact it has had on democratic countries — their institutions and electoral processes — in South and Southeast Asia.