Kabir Agarwal

Independent investigative journalist

Kabir is an award-winning independent journalist who has contributed to the South China Morning Post, Washington Post, Foreign Policy, Caravan magazine, Al Jazeera and most recently worked as a national reporter at The Wire - India’s leading independent news site which attracts about seven million unique visitors each month. His reportage has covered poverty, agriculture, business, government policies, the environment and national security, and included filming video interviews, video stories and hosting a podcast series on climate change and food policy. He reported and exposed several instances of malpractices in government policies and window-dressing of accounts. He also uncovered, for the first time in the history of India, the political sensitive list of corporate houses who have not paid their loan dues despite having the financial ability to do so.

Most recently, he was part of two global collaborative investigative projects: The Pegasus Project and The Congo Hold-up.

Alongside his work as a reporter and journalist, Kabir has co-authored a book titled Chasing the Affordable Dream: A Plan To House Mumbai’s Millions on Mumbai’s affordable housing crisis and possible solutions to resolve it.

Awards, fellowships & grants include
- Berlin Energy Transition Dialogue Fellowship (2020): as a media fellow with a focus on India's clean energy transition
- Society of Environment Journalists’ grant: for stories on the destruction of the natural habitat of migratory birds in northeast India
- Water AidIndia's media fellowship: to report on the water crisis in urban India
- Red Ink Award (2018): for excellence in business and economy journalism for his reportage on farmer suicides in India’s largest state, Uttar Pradesh

Portfolio
The Wire
'Betting on Hunger': Market Speculation Is Contributing to Global Food Insecurity

New Delhi/London/Rome: Food prices have climbed to unprecedented levels in recent months, adding to an already precarious food security situation in large parts of the developing world. The report blamed the "toxic triple combination" of climate change, the economic effects of the pandemic and over the past two years.

Foreign Policy
03/07/2021
India's Green Revolution Sowed the Seeds of Today's Meltdown

Indian farmers, many of whom have been engaged for more than six months in protests against new agricultural laws passed by Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi's government, are angry. Some have referred to their protest as the largest such mobilization in human history.

Washington Post
04/13/2021
Opinion | An ignored water crisis is at the center of the farmer protest in India

It was more than six months ago that Indian farmers started protesting against three new laws pushed in unilaterally by the government of Prime Minister Narendra Modi. The laws aim to change the way agricultural markets operate. But, from the very beginning, the protests have not been only about the intricacies of those laws.

The Wire
Exclusive: Under RTI Act, RBI Finally Discloses Details of Major Wilful Defaulters

New Delhi: Four years after the Supreme Court first directed the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) to disclose a list of India's wilful defaulters, the central bank has finally complied. In response to a Right to Information (RTI) application filed by The Wire in May 2019, the RBI has released a list of 30 major wilful defaulters.