Samrat Chowdhery is a former journalist who obtained his Bachelor’s degree from the St. Xavier’s College in 1996. He took his post-graduate diploma in Journalism from the Xaviers Institute of Communications in 1999. 

In furtherance of the initiative for tobacco harm reduction, Mr. Chowdhery has led the global movement in this field as the former president of the International Network of Nicotine Consumer Organisations (INNCO), an umbrella body of nonprofits from over 40 nations across four continents which was granted the UN observer status for its work in championing the rights of the world’s 1.1 billion tobacco users to avail means to safeguard their health.

Mr. Chowdhery leads consumer advocacy efforts for tobacco harm reduction in India, being the founding director of the registered nonprofit Council for Harm Reduced Alternatives (CHRA) and its subsidiary Association of Vapers India (AVI). Both institutions work towards creating awareness of less harmful alternatives to smoking and smokeless tobacco, and lobbies for the adoption of harm-reduction policies that allow and encourage tobacco users who are unable to quit to reduce harm by switching to risk-reduced alternatives.

Prior to assuming this post, he garnered experience in the field as an Editorial Coordinator for the Times of India from 1999 to 2007, as Deputy News Editor for Daily News & Analysis from 2007 to 2011, and as a Senior Assistant Editor in The Free Press Newspaper from 2016 to 2017.