The winners of the 2023 Ramnath Goenka Awards for Excellence in Journalism on their tales that took them to completely different elements of India, the challenges they confronted and the impression they made — from uncovering a drug rip-off to reporting from battle zones.
Maitri Porecha – The Hindu
Derailed and Distraught
“I’m technically a well being reporter. So once I came upon concerning the Balasore practice accident, I made a decision to go to the hospital first. I came upon {that a} loco pilot and an assistant loco pilot, who had been reported to be lifeless in early flashes, had been truly alive. That turned my first story. Passenger our bodies had been so badly mutilated that that they had no figuring out markers anymore. It was very triggering to report. I broke down within the hospital due to all of the corpses I noticed. A staffer advised me to include my feelings as a result of the kin of those that had been injured or killed had been frantically trying to find hope, and so they may get disturbed.”
Ashutosh Mishra – India At the moment TV (Broadcast)
Ashutosh Mishra – India At the moment TV (Broadcast)
A Fraught State
“Manipur was hardly being reported on and the present reportage solely targeted on the violence. However we wished to indicate the plight of individuals trapped in that state of affairs. It was the worst sort of humanitarian disaster we had seen. So we determined to go to the basis trigger, staying within the state for 15 days. We met individuals from each stroll of life and confirmed how the state was actually divided. I used to be stunned that individuals in Manipur knew about us, a largely Hindi information channel. Additionally they knew that we confirmed each aspect of a narrative. That’s all they wished, for his or her voices to be heard.”
UNCOVERING INVISIBLE INDIA
Satyasundar Barik – The Hindu (Print)
Satyasundar Barik – The Hindu (Print)
The Braveness to Communicate
“My story was about staff migrating to metro cities and being sexually exploited. Some had been even pressured into marriage. This was a distressing story to do. I keep in mind going to interview a 13-14 12 months outdated lady however since she had been brutally raped, she ran away from me. That’s once I determined to widen the scope of the story to probe exploitation of minor ladies. I came upon about 1000’s of minor ladies who had been lacking for years.”
Vishnukant Tiwari and Athar Quite – The Quint (Broadcast/Digital)
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Athar Quite and Vishnukant Tiwari – The Quint (Broadcast/Digital)
Into the Jungle
“We stayed in several elements of Jharkhand for 15 days or so to inform the story of girls who had been paraded bare and killed within the inside a part of the state for practising ‘witchcraft’. The problem was to make them belief us and we frolicked with them, consuming with them and understanding the entire state of affairs. Furthermore, in line with tribal beliefs, girls are sometimes not allowed to speak to outsiders.”
FOREIGN CORRESPONDENT COVERING INDIA
Nilesh Christopher – Remainder of World (Print/Digital)
Nilesh Christopher – Remainder of World (Print/Digital)
Paradigm Shifts
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“The most important concern I confronted (reporting on AI and the shift in manufacturing away from China) was lack of information amongst native NGOs. I needed to interact an skilled from New York.”
INVESTIGATIVE REPORTING
Nihal AP Koshie, Mahender Singh Manral and Mihir Vasavda
The Indian Specific (Print)
Nihal AP Koshie, Mahender Singh Manral and Mihir Vasavda – The Indian Specific
The Ladies who led the Cost and took on Energy
“The braveness of the ladies wrestlers, who had been protesting sexual harassment, was commendable as a result of they had been up in opposition to an influential MP, Brij Bhushan Singh, and by extension the federal government on the Centre. The problem was to get the alleged victims and witnesses to first belief us, then open up and discuss their ordeal. A slander marketing campaign had begun in opposition to the wrestlers, so one needed to go over data from sources with a effective tooth comb earlier than publishing tales. As journalists, it was necessary to not get swayed by emotion, fall for planted tales and persist with the details.”
Anurag Dwary – NDTV (Broadcast)
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Anurag Dwary – NDTV (Broadcast)
Falling Requirements
“We did floor reporting from completely different districts to discover a medical school rip-off throughout Madhya Pradesh and took assist from stringers since legwork was restricted throughout the pandemic. We interviewed the minister who was heading the medical schooling division, college students who suffered in addition to most of the people.”
BUSINESS & ECONOMIC JOURNALISM
Twesh Mishra – The Financial Occasions (Print)
Twesh Mishra – The Financial Occasions (Print)
Rocky Street to the Future
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“The story highlighted discrepancies within the disbursal of presidency subsidies meant for native manufacturing of electrical automobiles. There was ample resistance from giant to midsize corporates, which had been flouting norms, together with threats of authorized notices. After the preliminary gaffe, the Union Ministry of Heavy Industries (MHI) ensured that any illegally disbursed subsidies had been recovered. Norms had been considerably tightened and stricter monitoring launched.”
SPORTS JOURNALISM
Shahab Ali and Amarnath Kashyap – Hindustan (Print)
Shahab Ali and Amarnath Kashyap – Hindustan (Print)
Not Simply Humble Beginnings
“We wrote the story of how famend athlete Asha Barla’s home in her village didn’t even have consuming water, her sisters weren’t in a position to examine in class, the roads within the village had been damaged. Going there was difficult. The police didn’t go there, there have been militants throughout managed the realm and would cease us on our approach. Once we printed the story, the district administration threatened us. The Jharkhand authorities utilized strain on them and finally motion was taken.”
Tejas Vaidya and Enakshi Rajvanshi – BBC Hindi (Broadcast/Digital)
Tejas Vaidya and Enakshi Rajvanshi – BBC Hindi (Broadcast/Digital)
Leaving the Sidelines
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“We needed to deliver sensitivity to the reportage of sports activities performed by girls. We went to Gujarat for a normal story however came upon a couple of tribal girl with a five-month-old little one, who would journey far each weekend to attend a cricket camp. In a rustic the place cricket is an obsession, there’s no deep dive into girls’s ardour for cricket. There’s patriarchy in sports activities too. It was tough to get in contact with anybody for the story initially as a result of there’s no mounted federation for this sport. We spent 15 days on it. Largely non-public our bodies are dealing with this. There was no authorities entity we may speak to to seek out sources. For 15 to twenty days, we simply seemed for individuals and tried to seek out out the place individuals are from. One of many coaches was additionally tough to succeed in.”
ENVIRONMENT, SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY
Sibu Kumar Tripathi – India At the moment (Print/Digital)
A Metropolis that would Sink
“Joshimath was a metropolis taking place on account of its personal weight. It was developed on the ruins of a very outdated landslide. The muse was unstable. There had been an infrastructural and inhabitants growth and that contributed to the issue. We wrote on how the warning indicators had been round since 1976 when a examine was executed on the problem. One of many challenges we confronted was de-jargonising the knowledge and simplifying it for a layperson.”
Joel Michael and Rohini Krishnamurthy – Down To Earth (Broadcast/Digital)
A Lethal Leak
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“We wished to have a look at not simply the 2023 Ludhiana fuel leak. That was only one crack. We wished to seek out the basis reason for the issue. We discovered individuals who had been affected, spoke to activists who had been campaigning for higher waste administration and scientists who had studied the drain.”
FEATURE WRITING
Shubhajit Roy – The Indian Specific
Contained in the Battle Zone
“Reporting on a conflict generally is a problem so when I discovered myself on the Israel-Gaza border, I knew this was among the many hardest assignments I’d face. Hamas rockets zinged previous my ears, generally so shut that I needed to run for shelter to the closest bunker mid-interview. The times would begin with coaxing drivers to take me nearer to the theatre of conflict. My expertise in Afghanistan because the Taliban took over Kabul in August 2021 helped me plan for contingencies.”
PHOTOJOURNALISM
P Ravikumar – The New Indian Specific
Devastation Reigns
“Within the aftermath of the Michaung cyclone, I captured an enormous oil spill that devastated many properties. We had technical in addition to bodily difficulties throughout the story. My lungs acquired affected due to how polluted the ambiance had gotten. I used to be unwell for some time. The physician mentioned my lungs had been working at 45 per cent capability. Take into consideration the individuals who suffered, who lived there. They misplaced their properties and pure sources. Fishing is the principle livelihood for Ennore (Chennai) residents. About 10 tonnes of oil had by chance leaked from a manufacturing unit and gotten combined with flood water, getting into the homes of many individuals. They had been flooded as much as 4 to 5 toes. Fishing was stopped for 2 to a few months. Solely after six months was the water clear sufficient to enterprise into. I’m glad that this story acquired nationwide consideration. Since this was a man-made catastrophe, it may be averted sooner or later.”
HINDI
Mridulika Jha – Aaj Tak (Print/Digital)
Taking Any Manner Out
“We did the Dunki route story earlier than Shah Rukh Khan’s movie. We went to a Haryana village and located simply how a lot individuals stake to go to America. They didn’t need to speak to us at first however later opened up.”
Siddhant Mohan – The Lallantop (Broadcast/Digital)
The Actual Kerala Story
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“After I went to Kerala (to report on the simplistic narratives of the film The Kerala Story), locals resented Delhi
media. They didn’t speak at first. I met individuals from radical outfits too.”
REGIONAL LANGUAGES
Jisha Elizabeth – Madhyamam (Print/Digital)
Throughout State Borders
“From Kerala, numerous younger individuals are going overseas and getting trapped. My story was about traffickers from Thailand recruiting youth to work as scammers. A problem is that each the federal government and the victims themselves don’t know what’s going on. They don’t have numerous knowledge on these scams.”
Mandar Gonjari – ABP Majha (Broadcast)
The Brains of the Operation
“The primary problem we confronted reporting on the story of an undertrial, who ran an artificial drug racket from his hospital mattress in Pune, was that so many authorities authorities are concerned with drug cartels. Getting inside data inside was tough. Individuals don’t know the magnitude of (India’s) drug downside.”
BOOKS (NON-FICTION)
AR Venkatachalapathy – Penguin Random Home
Standing up in opposition to the Raj
“I first examine VO Chidambaram once I was in Class X. He turned the topic of my ebook Swadeshi Steam: VO Chidambaram Pillai and the Battle Towards the British Maritime Empire. It was a David and Goliath story. Within the southernmost nook of India, a small-time lawyer determined to tackle the may of the British maritime empire, one of many largest delivery empires of the world.”