Meet our staff

Rest of WorldOct 27, 2026

Hi! I’m Paula, the audience editor at Rest of World. I’m so glad you’ve joined our community of readers. I’d like to take a moment to introduce you to some of our staff who work in our global newsroom — and ask them questions for a change.

Meet Itika Sharma Punit

Itika has spent her professional career in her native India, reporting and editing tech and business stories. As our deputy editor, she oversees South Asia, Africa, and Latin America coverage.

Paula: Itika, what first made you want to become a journalist?

Itika: I started my career as a business journalist covering several industries, including oil and gas, real estate, and manufacturing. Around the early 2010s, tech became the common factor across all those industries, and that’s how I transitioned into covering technology full time.

Paula: What do you look for as an editor in a Rest of World story?

Itika: On-the-ground original reporting with real-world characters.

Meet Indranil Ghosh

Indranil — Nil for short — is our editor based in Abu Dhabi. He reports and edits stories from across the Middle East and Africa, covering everything from satellite internet to AI’s impact on the VFX industry.

Paula: What first made you want to become a journalist?

Nil: I studied commerce, then law, and was meant to follow my father into the practice. I lost my way en route to the court, ended up in a newsroom, and got addicted to the thrill of breaking news. The high has never worn off.

Paula: What’s the biggest story in global tech that you’re keeping an eye on right now?

Nil: One story I keep chasing is about who owns the machines. AI runs on rooms full of very expensive computers, and almost all of those rooms belong to Amazon, Microsoft, or Google. Governments that want to use AI rent time on them, at prices set in the U.S. Gulf states and India have now started buying the machines outright and putting them on their own soil. Owning rather than renting changes the balance of power, and the U.S. companies are watching their customers turn into competitors.

Meet Viola Zhou

Viola is our senior reporter based in New York City — she writes about Chinese tech, business, and internet culture. When she’s not in the office, she’s (unsuccessfully!) learning Spanish on Duolingo.

Paula: Can you tell me about your favorite reporting trip/excursion in the field?

Viola: I traveled to Chennai, India, to write about Apple’s move to shift iPhone production from China to India. It was a fascinating experience meeting the managers, engineers, and assembly line workers who make up this globalized manufacturing apparatus, and learning how this consumer gadget has changed their lives as well. I still look at my iPhone and think of the people who worked hard to build it.

Paula: What’s the most important thing for a reporter to keep in mind?

Viola: Talk to one more person if you can. I try to speak to as many people as I can before a story’s deadline. You never know who is going to give you the most captivating details that may change the entire story.

You can meet more Rest of World folks on our About Us page. Of course, we’d love for you to support all of us here by becoming a member.

Paula Cho
Audience Editor

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