CHENNAI: A software engineer from Tamil Nadu was among those awarded the prestigious Pulitzer Prize that was declared in the United States on Wednesday.
Son of noted political activist P Nedumaran, Palani Kumanan (50), a renowned data analyst at the Wall Street Journal (WSJ), was part of the team that exposed the abuse in the Medicare system there, winning the prize under the investigative category.
A software professional who worked with Wipro in Bengaluru before moving to the US, Kumanan first joined IBM before moving to WSJ, one of the most respected names in journalism in general and business journalism in particular.
At WSJ, Kumanan, along with John Carreyrou, Christopher Weaver, Christopher Stewart, Tom McGinty, Rob Barry, Anna Mathews and Janet Adamy on reporting, and Martin Burch, Chris Canipe, Madeline Farbman, Jon Keegan and Stuart Thompson from the graphics team, worked on the award-winning series “Medicare Unmasked”.
After fighting with the authorities for over seven years, the team put together the data on medical insurance among other details, to be made available to the public. Gerard Baker, editor-in-chief of The Wall Street, noted how the series revealed the fraud and waste that distorted the vast government programme. The Pulitzer prize was awarded to the entire team for the work.