Bloomberg reporter returns to DC bureau, is laid off

Gopal Ratnam, a national security reporter for Bloomberg News, returned to the Washington bureau where he is based on Monday after work-related travel the past two weeks.

He was promptly laid off, sources tell Talking Biz News.

In a short note to his colleagues, Ratnam wrote, “It’s been a pleasure working with so many pros. Will miss you.”

Ratnam has been busy covering U.S. Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel and the growing military action in northern Iraq. Hagel also visited India in the past week.

Ratnam was apparently the last of the layoffs in the Washington bureau. Most of them were executed two weeks ago and included people from the wire service and people from Bloomberg Television.

Previously he has written on automobile and energy policy for Bloomberg News.

Prior to joining Bloomberg in January 2007, Ratnam was a senior reporter for Defense News in Washington for eight years. During that period he covered U.S. defense budgets, national security policy, modernization and U.S. arms sales to the Middle East and Asia and has traveled extensively in the region.

He holds a master’s degree in journalism from American University in Washington. A native of India, he also holds an MBA degree from the country and was a business reporter for The Hindu-BusinessLine — one of India’s largest English-language newspapers — before migrating to the United States in the mid-1990s.