Tejinder Singh, active Club volunteer and founder of India America Today, dies at 61

Tejinder Singh, founder and editor of India America Today (IAT) and a major contributor to National Press Club activities, died May 24. Singh, who was 61, chaired the Club's Newsmakers Committee for 2010 and helped arrange for numerous prominent speakers to appear at the Club.  He also served on the Club's broadcast and international correspondents committees.

The veteran multimedia political and business journalist lived in India, Switzerland, Germany and Greece before becoming editor-in-chief of The European Weekly in Brussels, Belgium. Prior to that he worked for APM News, a business reporting service, and as a broadcast journalist with BBC, South African Broadcasting Corp., and Flemish-English and Indian networks.

After moving to the United States, Singh in 2012 Singh started IAT, an independent media organization and news provider based in Washington. His beat included the White House, State Department and Pentagon. From 2011-2012, he served as vice president for print of the Asian American Journalists Association.  

"He was a real gentleman, good reporter, damn good reporter," John Kirby, Assistant to the Secretary of Defense for Public Affairs, said in a tribute to Singh at the Pentagon briefing June 1. "He was a Pentagon correspondent since 2011, and I dealt with him from this podium. I've dealt with him when I was at the State Department podium, and the one word, I mean, the word one that comes to mind when you think of Tejinder is gentleman.  We're all going to miss him."

His final report for IAT was posted on May 19 and was about the U.S. urging other nations to reevaluate ties with the Burmese military, while reiterating tough talk on junta’s coup and denouncing the atrocities on political protests against it.

Singh was born in Kharagpur, an industrial city in West Bengal, India, and studied engineering at the Indian Institute of technology.  But journalism was his main interest and he earned a bachelor of arts degree from Osmania University in Hyderabad, Telangana, India.