Sushanta Kumar Singha, widely known as Sushanta Sinha, is a Bangladeshi television journalist who has devoted the last 16 years to investigative reporting, with a particular focus on tobacco control, financial corruption, and climate change. He currently serves as a Special Correspondent at Ekattor Television and is recognized as the first journalist in Bangladesh to expose the illegal revenue diversion practices of cigarette companies, which were evading nearly BDT 20 crore (BDT 200 million) per day by violating the Maximum Retail Price (MRP) system. His reporting directly led the National Board of Revenue (NBR) to mandate the printing of MRP on cigarette packets—a regulation that continues today.
In recognition of his significant and consistent contributions to public health journalism, particularly in tobacco control, Mr. Singha received the WHO South-East Asia Regional Director’s Special Recognition Award in 2025—becoming the first Bangladeshi journalist to earn this prestigious honor from the World Health Organization (WHO).
He has conducted extensive research on tobacco industry tax evasion and child labor in the bidi sector. In 2012, he carried out the first nationwide study on the number of bidi factories and workers in Bangladesh. Later, in 2015, he was awarded a research grant by the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health–BCCP to study child labor in bidi factories, which was subsequently published in an international journal. His research has been presented at global conferences in Ireland, the UK, Indonesia, and South Africa.
For his unwavering commitment to tobacco control, Sushanta Singha received the National Tobacco Control Award in 2023 and 2025, conferred by the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, Bangladesh. Over his career, he has also received numerous other honors, including the Meena Award for Investigative Journalism by UNICEF, the DRU Award, the BPICC Award, the ERF Award, and the PROGGA Award. Alongside tobacco control, he has produced more than 50 investigative reports on corruption and irregularities in Bangladesh’s financial sector.
Mr. Singha began his career after earning both a bachelor’s and master’s degree in mass communication and journalism from the University of Rajshahi. In 2007, he was active in local and national journalism as well as student politics in Pabna district. He later joined as a Research Assistant at the Research and Development Center (RDC) and subsequently joined as a Junior Officer at the Japanese International Cooperation Center (JICE) in Dhaka. His television journalism career began in September 2008 at Ekushey Television as an economic journalist, followed by positions at ATN News Ltd., Jamuna Television, and Desh Television, before joining Ekattor Television.
Internationally, he has been awarded fellowships from the Global Investigative Journalism Network (GIJN) at the Third Asian Investigative Journalism Conference (IJAsia18) and from Vital Strategies for his work on public health data in CRVS workshop in Thailand. In 2023, he participated in the Training of Economic Journalists on International Trade in Singapore, hosted by the National Press Foundation & Hinrich Foundation. That same year, he attended COP28 in Dubai as a Journalist Fellow with Internews. He successfully completed the Capacity Development and Training Workshop Series for Media Professionals on Pollution and Health 2025 at Sunway University, Kuala Lumpur, and the Johns Hopkins 2024 South Asia Regional Leadership Program in Colombo, Sri Lanka.
Publications
Myths and Realities of Tobacco Company — A bilingual book analyzing BAT Bangladesh’s 10-year annual reports, published by Magic Lanthan Prokashon in May 2024 (ISBN: 978-984-96307-8-4).
Somprocher Sangbadikota Ak: Path O Bastobota — The first edition on broadcast journalism in Bangladesh, published by Magic Lanthan Prokashon in January 2021 (ISBN: 978-984-34-9742). This book is currently studied in the Department of Mass Communication and Journalism at Rajshahi University.
In addition to his professional achievements, Mr. Singha is an active member of DRU, ERF, and the Bangladesh Agricultural Journalist Forum (BAJAF). He has also won national titles in contemporary speech and debate competitions. Over the years, he has visited and presented research in 16 countries, including the USA, UK, UAE, Ireland, Russia, Turkey, India, South Korea, Thailand, Singapore, South Africa, the Philippines, Indonesia, Sri Lanka, Malaysia, Scotland, and Botswana.
On a personal note, Mr. Singha lives with his wife, Shamsoonaher, and is the proud father of two children: a daughter, Projonmo Prokriti Prashnik, and a son, Pangon Pothikrit.
