Lead anchor for India’s top news program is a Carleton alum
Meet Vishnu
For over 20,000 hours, Vishnudeep (Vishnu) Som (BAH/95 MA/96) has delivered some of the biggest breaking news stories in the world.
Over his thirty-year career as a journalist, Som has covered wars and political conflict zones — reporting on the ground from in Ukraine, Afghanistan, Congo, Iraq and Kargil — and the Fukushima nuclear accident in Japan.
Som has been recognized extensively for his work. He received India’s most prestigious award for journalism, the Ramnath Goenka award, in 2011, Editor’s Pick award by Global Investigative Journalism Network in 2021 and was named India’s Transformational News Anchor (WCRC) in 2023, to name a few.
His first book, “The Sky Warriors” (published this year and available now) is lauded as the official account of Operation Sindoor: a tactical and swift deployment of the Indian Air Force on targets in Pakistan, simply put.
He was even referred to as a “mischievous journalist” on the floor of India’s parliament for his reporting on re-emerging conflicts between India and China — something he considers a badge of honour.
But Som didn’t graduate from Carleton University’s top-ranked journalism program.
Instead, he followed his interests in aviation and military history and technology, earning an undergraduate degree with a double major in history and political science and a master’s in communications, both from Carleton.
Som was born in Copenhagen, Denmark and grew up in India, before moving to Ottawa for high school where he attended Lisgar Collegiate. After what was grade 13 at the time, he enrolled at Carleton.
“My late father was a diplomat,” says Som, “I have grown up all over the world.”
While this may not seem like the most direct path to becoming an award-winning journalist, he attributes his success to the transferrable skills he developed during his time in Ottawa.
“I think the skills I picked up as a social sciences student in Canada and at Carleton is something which fit very easily into my career as a journalist. The ability to balance arguments and weigh their merits and demerits lies, in a sense, at the heart of journalism,” says Som.
During his undergrad, Som enjoyed studying in Ottawa. Som points to one professor in particular who made a difference in his skill development, leading him to continue his studies through a graduate degree.
“Professor Eileen Saunders was quite simply the finest teacher I had. She was very rigorous in explaining to us the ability to critically analyze,” he says.
Furthermore, he remembers how his experience as a residence fellow through the Residence Fellow program contributed to his ability to find a community on campus. Many of his closest friends met while working as res fellows and are still in touch despite the distances between them.
“One of my best friends [who I met at Carleton] is Pakistani and I now cover wars between India and Pakistan,” says Som.
“As a journalist of thirty years, I see so many of these boundaries pitted between nations. It was an incredible experience interacting with people at Carleton from all over the world where those boundaries don’t exist,” he says.
The foundation Som developed during his time at Carleton helped him find his beat as a news reporter in India just months after graduation. That decision launched a career that led him to his current role as managing editor and lead anchor for the top news program in New Delhi, Left, Right and Centre on NDTV.
“The greatest quality of Carleton is the diversity of the student community. I’m not just talking about people from different parts of Canada and the world, but people who come in with different skill sets and qualities,” says Som.
“It’s what gave Carleton — and hopefully continues to give Carleton — a real image of being inclusive, an image which feeds into the heart of multiculturalism in Canada,” he says.
Som’s passion for seeking the truth and reporting all angles of complex political dynamics that he’s now known for also stems from his global worldview. The international perspective and experiences that Som brought and nurtured through university are inherent to Carleton as an institution.
“It is truly an international institution. It’s a natural celebration of diversity, not something that was forced,” says Som.
“It’s just the way Carleton is.”
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Carleton’s President and Vice-Chancellor, Wisdom Tettey met with alumni and Universities Canada colleagues during a recent visit to New Delhi, India to discuss India-Canada higher education collaborations between the two countries.