The Weekend Leader.com (TWL) is a pioneer in positive journalism - a one of its kind media venture managed by experienced journalists with a self-imposed mandate to focus exclusively on positive news and features. Headquartered in the South Indian city of Chennai, TWL’s vision is global and driven by universal values.
The Team
TWL’s Founder Editor P C Vinoj Kumar (born 1969) is an award winning journalist with wide experience in various print and online media. In a journalistic career spanning over a decade and a half, he has reported for a wide range of publications including Sify.com, Mid-Day, Dainik Bhaskar, Meantime and lastly Tehelka. After a five-year stint in Tehelka, a popular weekly and a respected name in Indian media, Vinoj resigned his job in January 2010 to set up TWL, his dream project. In the words of Tehelka’s iconic Editor Tarun Tejpal, Vinoj "always displayed a clear sense of right and wrong, an unwavering allegiance to the exploited and the suffering. A proud moment for him – and Tehelka – was his receiving the Statesman Rural Reporting Award for 2006. Vinoj’s decision to leave and pursue other goals is a great loss for Tehelka."
TWL’s Consulting Editor Sam Rajappa is a journalist with over five decades experience in media. Presently Director of The Statesman Print Journalism School, Kolkata, Sam started his career in journalism in 1960 as a sub-editor with the Free Press Journal in Bombay. In 1962 he joined The Statesman in New Delhi and later moved to Chennai. He was associated with the paper till 2008. In 1980, he took a year’s sabbatical from The Statesman to set up the South Indian network of India Today, and worked as their South India bureau chief based in Bangalore. Again, he took a short break from the paper in 1996 to launch The Andhra Pradesh Times, an English daily published from Hyderabad, as its founder-editor. For about fifteen years, since 1980, Sam was also the BBC’s South India correspondent. He was an adjunct faculty member of the Chennai-based Asian College of Journalism from 2001 to 2007.
TWL's Features Editor Khusbhu Sundar is a popular South Indian film star and television personality.
TWL’s Consulting Photo Editor Senthil Kumaran (born 1977), a software engineer turned lensman, is winner of international awards from UNESCO, Nat Geo, WWF, City Magazine and Photo Life Magazine. In 2007, he won London based Royal Geographic Society’s prestigious Geographical Photographer of the year award. His photographs have appeared in leading Indian publications such as India Today, Outlook and Tehelka.
Positive Action Programmes
Apart from its journalistic vision, TWL has plans to engage in various social initiatives such as organising leadership and motivational programmes for youth from lower income groups, and work in the fields of environmental conservation and restoration.
Patron | Corporate | Institutional Supporters
Individuals, Corporates, and Institutions who wish to support TWL’s Positive Journalism and Positive Social Action Programmes are inducted as TWL’s Patron | Corporate | Institutional Supporters.
Listed below are some of our supporters.
Friends of Positive Journalism (FPJ)
FPJ is a network of well-wishers of The Weekend Leader.
The wife of a porter, 38-year-old Sanuja Rajan, has won Rs. 1 crore in a TV reality show in Kerala. Life has come full circle for the woman, who has endured many hardships, says Sanu George
The scenic East Coast Road that connects Chennai with several tourist destinations has turned into a death trap due to increase in number of accidents. KP Subramanian analyses the problem
A small army of friends have joined hands to strengthen TWL under the banner of the Friends of Positive Journalism, a forum that was launched two years ago. P C Vinoj Kumar has the details
Ravi Kalra is a former taekwondo instructor whose NGO cares for senior citizens, and mentally challenged people. He carries on with his work though his family deserted him, says Rahul Vaishnavi
Is Sri Lanka’s High Commissioner to India, Prasad Kariyawasam playing a dangerous game of dividing Indians? He has been accused of instigating the North Indians against the people of Tamil Nadu
Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa has written to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh that IPL matches involving Sri Lankan players, umpires and other officials should not be played in Tamil Nadu
Indian cricketers, including Dhoni and Sachin, let their hair down after their historic whitewash of Australia by zooming and careening around the Buddh International Circuit in Greater Noida
Student outfit warns IPL against fielding Sri Lankan players in Chennai. Political parties echo the demand as the ‘Boycott Sri Lanka’ campaign gains momentum and casts its shadow on cricket
The Weekend Leader captures the ongoing students’ struggle in Tamil Nadu in photographs, even as the protests appear to be taking the shape of a popular movement for creation of Tamil Eelam
Buoyed by pro-Eelam freedom protests in Tamil Nadu, V Rudrakumaran, Prime Minister of TGTE, downplayed the US resolution in UNHRC and pitched for an independent Tamil Eelam, says Radhika Giri
Sanitation is the last thing crisis managers provide to people displaced from homes by disasters. Now a former banker, Promita Sengupta , has come up with a quickly deployable toilet that has come handy for NGOs, says Kavita Kanan Chandra
A young innovator from Tamil Nadu aspires to create 50,000 jobs by popularizing his herbal mosquito repellent, ‘Hermo’, which repels mosquitoes effectively but does not harm humans as it is non-allergic and non-toxic, says P C Vinoj Kumar
Village Ways, launched by Manisha and Himanshu Pande on the principle of responsible tourism, helps urbanites have a real feel of rural life. Not a ‘home stay’ kind, the enterprise ropes in the locals as partners, says Kavita Kanan Chandra
Social work is no pizza business, it requires commitment and passion says Vidyaakar, who has been running a home in Chennai, Udhavum Karangal, for 30 years. Catherine Gilon met the Papa, who now has 1263 people, 314 of them kids, in his care
A young IAS officer mobilized Rs 40 lakh through Facebook to build a road in Manipur, earning the sobriquet ‘The Miracle Man’. Gaurav Sharma met Armstrong Pame to find out why he wanted to build the 100 km ‘People’s Road’ and how he did it
A grassroots innovator, Dharamveer Kamboj, has changed the lives of people from the barren land of Rajasthan to the dense forest of Nagaland by designing a food processor. Kavita Kanan Chandra explains how it works well for women and tribes
They call him the ‘glacier man’. Chewang Norphel of Ladakh built 12 artificial glaciers that prevented farmers in high altitudes from moving out of the villages in search of alternative livelihood. Akash Bisht profiles the visionary with grit
Identifying clothing as a basic necessity after food and shelter, a journalist couple, Anshu Gupta and Meenakshi, started a social venture, Goonj, providing ‘Cloth for Work’. Then they did more, reaching parts of 21 states, says Roohi Seghal
A father-daughter duo is turning rhinoceros dung into paper, which in turn has turned out to be an economically lucrative venture. Kavita Kanan Chandra explains how Elrhino, the micro-enterprise, will also help in wildlife conservation
Driven by a desire to succeed after he was told that he did not deserve a Pilot pen in class V, Ramesh Babu who worked his way up to own a fleet of 127 cars, including a Rs 3.3 crore Rolls Royce, yet remains a hairstylist, says P C Vinoj Kumar
About Us
TWL’s Founder Editor P C Vinoj Kumar (born 1969) is an award winning journalist with wide experience in various print and online media. In a journalistic career spanning over a decade and a half, he has reported for a wide range of publications including Sify.com, Mid-Day, Dainik Bhaskar, Meantime and lastly Tehelka. After a five-year stint in Tehelka, a popular weekly and a respected name in Indian media, Vinoj resigned his job in January 2010 to set up TWL, his dream project. In the words of Tehelka’s iconic Editor Tarun Tejpal, Vinoj "always displayed a clear sense of right and wrong, an unwavering allegiance to the exploited and the suffering. A proud moment for him – and Tehelka – was his receiving the Statesman Rural Reporting Award for 2006. Vinoj’s decision to leave and pursue other goals is a great loss for Tehelka."
TWL’s Consulting Editor Sam Rajappa is a journalist with over five decades experience in media. Presently Director of The Statesman Print Journalism School, Kolkata, Sam started his career in journalism in 1960 as a sub-editor with the Free Press Journal in Bombay. In 1962 he joined The Statesman in New Delhi and later moved to Chennai. He was associated with the paper till 2008. In 1980, he took a year’s sabbatical from The Statesman to set up the South Indian network of India Today, and worked as their South India bureau chief based in Bangalore. Again, he took a short break from the paper in 1996 to launch The Andhra Pradesh Times, an English daily published from Hyderabad, as its founder-editor. For about fifteen years, since 1980, Sam was also the BBC’s South India correspondent. He was an adjunct faculty member of the Chennai-based Asian College of Journalism from 2001 to 2007. 
TWL's Features Editor Khusbhu Sundar is a popular South Indian film star and television personality. 
TWL’s Consulting Photo Editor Senthil Kumaran (born 1977), a software engineer turned lensman, is winner of international awards from UNESCO, Nat Geo, WWF, City Magazine and Photo Life Magazine. In 2007, he won London based Royal Geographic Society’s prestigious Geographical Photographer of the year award. His photographs have appeared in leading Indian publications such as India Today, Outlook and Tehelka.
