Parvinder Singh
| Parvinder Singh | |
|---|---|
| File:Parvinder Singh WFP.jpgParvinder_Singh_WFP.jpg | |
| Born | Jammu and Kashmir, India |
| 🏡 Residence | New Delhi, India |
| 🏳️ Nationality | Indian |
| 💼 Occupation | Communications and media professional |
| 👔 Employer | United Nations World Food Programme |
| 🏢 Organization | World Food Programme |
| Known for | Strategic communications on food security and nutrition |
| Title | Head of Communications and Media, WFP India Country Office |
Parvinder Singh is an Indian communications and media professional and writer who serves as Head of Communications and Media at the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) India Country Office in New Delhi.[1][2][3] His work focuses on strategic communications, media relations and advocacy on issues such as food security, nutrition, gender equality and India's role in international development.[4][5] He also writes opinion columns in leading Indian and international newspapers on history, culture, humanitarian affairs and public policy.
Career
Singh's professional experience spans news media, communication, public policy and development work with international non-governmental and multilateral organisations.[4] He has worked in advocacy and campaign roles with organisations including ActionAid, where he served as Communications Director. In this role he was involved in the Save Niyamgiri Campaign, which mobilised citizen engagement against proposed mining by the company Vedanta Resources in the Niyamgiri hills of Odisha, India. Singh was quoted in international press coverage of the campaign, including a February 2010 report by the international press agency Pressenza which drew parallels between the Niyamgiri indigenous tribe's struggle and the film Avatar.[4][6]
Early in his career, Singh wrote for international media on humanitarian crises. In 2008, he published a first-hand account in The Independent on the devastating 2008 Bihar floods, in which the Kosi river breached its embankments and affected millions of people, drawing attention to what he described as the world's inadequate response to the scale of the disaster.[7]
During the 2018 Kerala floods, Singh was quoted by major international media as a humanitarian spokesperson. Al Jazeera cited him describing the disaster as "truly overwhelming" and noting that "the magnitude of this calamity is fairly large and that is really stretching all the relief and rescue efforts that are going on", while also observing that relief and rescue efforts had "gained momentum over the last 48 hours" with the army, navy, air force and National Disaster Response Force stepping in.[8] The following day, ABC News (Australia) also quoted him, in which he described the flooding as "one of the worst floods Kerala has seen in the last hundred years" and called for relief efforts to act "on a scale that Kerala hasn't seen before".[9]
Singh later joined the United Nations World Food Programme and became Head of Communications and Media at the WFP India Country Office in New Delhi.[1][2][3] In this capacity he leads the country office's communication and media strategy, including media outreach, content and campaign development, donor and partner communications, and public messaging around WFP-supported work on food security, nutrition and social protection in India.[10][11]
A feature by the Jackson School of Global Affairs at Yale University on India's role in global food aid noted that discussions with staff at WFP's New Delhi office, including Singh as head of communications, helped shape a visiting student's understanding of India's transition from food aid recipient to partner.[5]
Writing and public engagement
Singh contributes opinion columns and essays to leading Indian and international media on topics spanning food security, nutrition, gender equality, history, and culture.
In 2021, he authored a column in the Hindustan Times examining the social and cultural roots of gender bias in food access in India, focusing on the practice of women eating last within households and the structural inequalities this reflects.[12]
On International Women's Day 2022, Singh published an opinion piece on the NDTV-Dettol Banega Swasth Swachh India platform on the links between nutrition and women's empowerment in India, arguing that engaging community women to run take-home ration production units represents a gender-transformative model for tackling malnutrition.[13]
In October 2025, he authored a column in the Hindustan Times on gender-related inequalities in nutrition in India, examining social norms that continue to influence women's and girls' access to food and nutrition services.[14]
Also in November 2025, Singh published a column in The Indian Express on the filmmaker Ritwik Ghatak, arguing that Ghatak's cinema offered lessons in the historian's craft by challenging naive optimism and cultural elitism while urging audiences to confront the fragility of belonging.[15]
In May 2026, Singh published a column in The Indian Express examining how British power used the press during the Indian Rebellion of 1857 to construct narratives of its own innocence, drawing parallels with contemporary patterns of media and geopolitical framing.[16]
Later that month, Singh published a tribute in The Indian Express to archaeologist Shereen Ratnagar, a professor at Jawaharlal Nehru University, reflecting on her scholarship on the Indus Valley civilisation and Mesopotamia and her influence as a teacher and public intellectual.[17]
He has also been involved in communications around India's cooperation with WFP on global hunger and in promoting the use of artificial intelligence in humanitarian and development work.[18]
Education
Singh studied at Jawaharlal Nehru University in New Delhi, with a research focus on Indian economic history supported by a fellowship from the Indian Council for Social Science Research (ICSSR).[4][2]
See also
- World Food Programme
- Food security in India
- 2018 Kerala floods
- Indian Rebellion of 1857
- Ritwik Ghatak
- 2008 Bihar floods
- Niyamgiri hills
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 "India". World Food Programme. Retrieved 14 June 2026.
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 "Parvinder Singh – World Food Programme". LinkedIn. Retrieved 14 June 2026.
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 "Media contacts". United Nations in India. Retrieved 14 June 2026.
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 4.3 "Parvinder Singh". EvalForEarth. 14 February 2024. Retrieved 14 June 2026.
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 "How India became a model for food aid". Jackson School of Global Affairs, Yale University. 15 February 2026. Retrieved 14 June 2026.
- ↑ "La ficción de Avatar se hace realidad en la India" [Avatar's fiction becomes reality in India]. Pressenza (in español). 10 February 2010. Retrieved 14 June 2026.
- ↑ Singh, Parvinder (2 September 2008). "Bihar is a heartbreaking tragedy, but world has been looking the other way". The Independent. Retrieved 14 June 2026.
- ↑ "People evacuated from rooftops as Kerala floods kill hundreds". Al Jazeera. 17 August 2018. Retrieved 14 June 2026.
- ↑ "India monsoon: At least 324 killed in Kerala floods as rescuers work to evacuate survivors". ABC News. Australian Broadcasting Corporation. 18 August 2018. Retrieved 14 June 2026.
- ↑ "Government of India and WFP sign cooperation agreement for 2023–27". World Food Programme. 19 March 2023. Retrieved 14 June 2026.
- ↑ "India and WFP join forces to combat global hunger". World Food Programme. 26 August 2025. Retrieved 14 June 2026.
- ↑ Singh, Parvinder (2 September 2021). "Why do women eat last? Understanding gender bias in India". Hindustan Times. Retrieved 14 June 2026.
- ↑ Singh, Parvinder (7 March 2022). "Opinion: Nutrition And Empowerment – Connecting The Dots". NDTV Banega Swasth India. Retrieved 14 June 2026.
- ↑ Singh, Parvinder (15 October 2025). "Breaking gender biases around nutrition". Hindustan Times. Retrieved 14 June 2026.
- ↑ Singh, Parvinder (18 November 2025). "Ritwik Ghatak's cinema offered lessons in historian's craft". The Indian Express. Retrieved 14 June 2026.
- ↑ Singh, Parvinder (8 May 2026). "During 1857 revolt, British power wrote its own innocence. The script isn't unfamiliar for our times". The Indian Express. Retrieved 14 June 2026.
- ↑ Singh, Parvinder (28 May 2026). "Shereen Ratnagar, the professor who taught us that stones could speak". The Indian Express. Retrieved 14 June 2026.
- ↑ "WFP Brings Proven AI Solutions to India Summit". World Food Programme. 17 February 2026. Retrieved 14 June 2026.
Category:Living people Category:Indian public relations people Category:Indian officials of the United Nations Category:World Food Programme people Category:Jawaharlal Nehru University alumni Category:Indian columnists Category:1973 births
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