Talks @ NSoJ
Health Journalism (Dr. Nimeshika Jayachandran)
Dr. Nimeshika Jayachandran is a Doctor and Journalist with bylines in The Times of India and TheNewsMinute. Currently based in the United States of America, Dr. Nimeshika Jayachandran is passionate about spreading awareness and writing about mental health and socially ‘taboo’ medical conditions.
Right out of high school in the Bay Area, Dr. Nimeshika Jayachandran opted to enter directly into a six-year medical school program in India. After completing medical school, she had the opportunity to work in clinical practice as a junior resident physician in various clinical settings including orthopaedics, ER & trauma care, obstetrics & gynaecology, and neurology.
Her medical background has proved useful and valuable in her work as a medical journalist, says Dr Jayachandran. She has covered a number of health-centric issues, the most recent of which has been in-depth COVID-19 reporting. She is an alumnus of the National School of Journalism and Public Discourse and graduated as a valedictorian in 2018.
Advanced Photography Skills Workshop (Sam Rajkumar, Reuters)
Samuel Rajkumar is an internationally acclaimed News and Sports Photojournalist at Reuters, a news division of Thomson Reuters. He is an Award-winning photographer at www.sportzpics.co.za, South Africa and is also the official Photographer for Board of Control For Cricket In India (BCCI) and the Indian Premier League (IPL).
He has also been commissioned as a photojournalist by the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) projects.
Freelance Journalism
Mahima Jain is an independent editor and journalist reporting on gender, environment, culture and socio-economic issues. She is passionate about writing deeply-researched narrative pieces that shine a spotlight on systemic issues and the lives of those at the margins.
Mahima was nominated for the prestigious SOPA Awards For Editorial Excellence 2022 (Reporting on Women’s Issues, Regional) for her story on domestic violence as a public health issue. She was a runner-up for the Thomson Foundation Young Journalist Award 2021 for her stories covering impact of migration on India’s women farmers, domestic violence, and agrobiodiversity. Her story on the burden of microloans on women for The Fuller Project won the UNFPA Laadli Media Award For Best Feature in 2021. Her work was on women left-behind in India’s migration wave was shortlisted for the Red Ink Awards 2021. Her podcast on rabies control in India received a special mention at the One World Media Awards 2022 in the podcast and radio category.
Sports Journalism Workshop (Vedam Jaishankar)
Vedam Jaishankar is a seasoned sports journalist and has covered cricket extensively from all the major cricketing venues of the world. His assignments include multiple World Cups. He has held senior positions in The Times of India, The New Indian Express, Indian Express and Deccan Herald.
He launched Vijay Times, which was subsequently acquired by the Times group and renamed Bangalore Mirror. Jaishankar has written two best-sellers: Rahul Dravid, A Biography that was translated into four languages and went through 15 re-prints and Casting A Spell, The Story Of Karnataka Cricket where he traced the 200-year-old history of Karnataka cricket. His third book is in post-production and is expected to hit the stands later this year.
He also has rich experience in television media, both in English and regional language. He continues to be actively involved in cricket journalism.
PAST TALKS
Television Anchoring and Reporting Workshop
The workshop aims to provide students with practical skills for their future anchoring and reporting assignments.
The workshop would sensitise the students to the role and qualities of an anchor, what is needed to be a good anchor and different anchoring styles. It will also have practical exercises and feedback for the students to do a short anchoring assignment.
The workshop will teach students the role and qualities of a reporter, what it takes to be a good reporter, interview tips and piece to camera suggestions. The students will do a short hands-on piece to camera exercises as well.
While giving them practical advice as they get ready to head out into the world of TV news reporting, they also get sensitised to the ethical aspects of their future roles.
About the facilitator:
Maya Sharma is Senior Consulting Editor for New Delhi Television. (NDTV). She has been a television journalist for over 30 years - as a reporter, anchor and documentary filmmaker. She is a Fulbright scholar from Syracuse University, New York and has won several awards for her professional work.
Maya was among the first trained television journalists in India, with training at FTII and CPC, New Delhi. Maya was part of the pioneering live telecast of election results in India in 1989 conducted by Prannoy Roy's NDTV and Doordarshan - introducing a brand new way of covering election results, including live interviews with candidates and newsmakers, This has been followed by extensive political reporting in all the southern states including coverage of elections since 1989 up to the 2019 Lok Sabha elections and the collapse of the Karnataka coalition government in 2019. Political reporting is a major focus of her work from Karnataka particularly - and she has closely watched and reported on the politics of this southern state for decades now.
As a television reporter, Maya has covered major news stories ranging from the devastation of the 2004 tsunami, the Mangalore air crash, the crimes and death of Veerappan, floods in Karnataka and Kerala, farmer distress and different aspects of the Covid 19 pandemic.
Maya's international assignments include the swearing-in of Nelson Mandela in Pretoria, South Africa in 1994. She has also reported from Malaysia on the ASEAN summit, from Hong Kong, Brazil, South Africa, the USA and the Czech Republic on annual international educational events. She has also reported on the Occupy Wall Street protests in New York and Washington.
Maya has reported on gender issues, crime, civic issues, business, sports and environmental issues - with a special focus on wildlife and animal welfare - an issue very dear to her heart.
As an anchor, Maya has presented live national news bulletins and also discussion shows with audiences, including a weekly show, Agenda, on issues facing Bengaluru and Karnataka.
She has also anchored, directed and produced several documentaries. The subjects include the then-new call-centre phenomenon in Bengaluru, child adoption, illegal mining in Ballari, environmental issues and an award-winning feature on the transformation of Bengaluru.
AWARDS & RECOGNITIONS:
1. Lifetime Achievement Award for Women Achievers from BCLIP 2022
2. The Kittur Rani Chennamma award for women's empowerment from the Karnataka State Government - 2019
3. Karnataka Union of Working Journalists award for human interest stories - 2018
4. Chanakya Award for Media Personality of the Year, Public Relations Council of India - 2017
5. Shortlisted for Association of International Broadcasters Award 2016 for two stories
6. House in Darkness - farmer suicide Mandya district, Water crisis Mandya district
7. ENBA Awards, All-India drought coverage for NDTV - contributed coverage - 2015
8. Recognition and Appreciation Award from Medico Pastoral Association and Rotary Bangalore East 2008 for work on suicide prevention
9. Citation for Excellence in Communication, Toastmasters International 2007
10. Karnataka State Media Academy Award for Best Anchor - Changing Face of Bangalore - 2005
11. Women Achievers Award, Ladies Circle - 2002
12. TEDx Speaker at the Indian Business Academy, Bengaluru
21st Century Careers in Media and Communications
National School of Journalism and Public Discourse (NSoJ) affiliated to Bengaluru City University invites Class 12th students and their parents to the open house titled, '21st Century Careers in Media and Communications'. The open house caters to students who aspire to pursue their careers in the field of Journalism, Mass Media, and Communication.
Brief profile of the Panelists
- Timothy Franklyn - Obama Scholar at Columbia University.
- Ashish Sen - Community Radio Pioneer, Theatre personality.
- Vedam Jaishankar - Veteran Sports Journalist, Ex- Sr. Editor, Indian Express.
- Baba Prasad - Former Associate Editor, The Hindu.
- Dipti Kumar - Director of Digital Engagement, US Consulate General, Chennai.
India's Foreign Policy 2021
Ambassador Sajjanhar served the Indian Foreign Service for over three decades. He was the ambassador of India to Kazakhstan, Sweden, and Latvia, and has worked in diplomatic positions in Washington DC, Brussels, Moscow, Geneva, Tehran, Dhaka, and Bangkok. He negotiated for India in the Uruguay Round of Multilateral Trade Negotiations, for India-EU, India-ASEAN, and the India-Thailand Free Trade Agreement.
He has served as the head of the National Foundation for Communal Harmony. He is currently the president of the Institute of Global Studies in New Delhi. Ambassador Sajjanhar writes and speaks on issues relating to international relations and Indian foreign policy.
Political Union Debate
This week's political union debate is here! On November 27th, 2021 (Saturday), our students will debate for and against the motion - India is not a secular country.
We will be joined by judges, Ms. Aarti Mundkur - founder member of the Alternative Law Forum in Bengaluru, and Mr. Karan Joseph - a Bengaluru-based advocate whose practice is focused on civil, commercial and constitutional matters of public law, civil law, arbitration, intellectual property, corporate disputes etc.
The Tyranny of Circumstances - the Indian Noir story
Nikesh Murali is a professional voice actor and an Amazon bestselling, Commonwealth Short Story Prize and DWL Story Prize-winning writer. Nikesh has also received honourable mentions for the Katha Short Story Prize twice. He is the author of a multi-award winning, Amazon bestselling short story collection 'The Killing fields'. His novel 'His Night Begins', which was praised by Crime Fiction Lover magazine for its 'terse action scenes and brutal energy', was released to critical acclaim and earned him the tag of the 'most hardboiled of Indian crime writers' from World Literature Today Journal. He is also an internationally acclaimed spoken poetry artist. His readings of some of the greatest poets of this generation on Twitter & Instagram (@indiannoir) are viral sensations, which have been viewed over a million times. His work was nominated for a Pushcart Prize in Poetry in 2007. Nikesh is the voice of Spotify exclusive Indian Noir, India’s most critically acclaimed, chart-topping crime and horror storytelling podcast. Indian Noir has been featured in Harper’s Bazaar, India Today, CBC, The Hindu, Times of India, New Indian Express, Hindustan Times, Deccan Herald, The Statesman, The Week, Femina, The Economic times, Mid-Day, The News Minute, ABC Radio, Mashable, Reader's Digest India, Men's World, Your Story and other media outlets. It has won rave reviews on major podcasting platforms from critics and listeners alike and is a chart-topper on the global Apple & Spotify Podcast Fiction and Drama charts. It also has blockbuster ratings on JioSaavn, Gaana and other major Indian audio streaming apps. Website: www.indiannoir.com social: @indiannoir on instagram and twitter
Emotional intelligence for 21st century
Shekhar Vijayan is a global entertainer, actor, author, motivational speaker, wellness and mindfulness coach. He has performed in India, Australia and London. He has hosted shows for Pat Cummins, Milkha Singh, Harbhajan Singh, Mohan Lal, Prabhudeva, Jeffrey Archer, Vikas Khanna, Novoneel Chakraborthy, Amish Tripathi etc. After the huge success of his first co-authored book 'Dare to Dream', Shekhar is on the verge of publishing another book within a few months. He frequently appears on Times Now, Republic TV and Mirror Now news channels to voice his opinion on sports, leadership, entertainment, politics and the environment.
Backstage Pass
Gaurav is a young professional from the city of Bangalore. After he graduated from the Pune University in Business Administration, Gaurav left no stone unturned to qualify in his dream field of Acoustic (Sound) Engineering - a specialized area of modern-day technology enabling him to design sound and acoustic systems across various applications - from sophisticated studio systems to gigantic open arenas and now indulging with the live stream trend.
He also holds technical certifications from Brands like Avid USA, D&B Audiotechnik, Sennheiser, Shure, DPA microphones, Dante, and so on. Gaurav now runs his own company that provides tech support and hi-end technical expertise, and training to several Entertainment Production Companies across southern India and abroad. He has provided tech support to major events such as IPL, ISL, IIFA, featuring Artists such as Shankar Mahadevan, A.R. Rahman, Vishal Shekar, Mohit Chauhan, Farhan Akhtar, Enrique Iglesias, David Guetta, Martin Garix, Above & Beyond, Harwell, Marshmallow, Bryan Adams and recently Rallies for PM Narendra Modi in Karnataka. He has also extended his expertise to The Royal Opera House in Muscat for Government Events.
Emotional Intelligence and Anger Management
Currently working as a Professor and Area Chair in the area of organizational behaviour and Human Resource Management at IILM Institute of Higher Education. Dr Jolly is a psychology graduate and has completed masters and MPhil in Psychology from the University of Delhi. She was awarded the PhD degree in 2009 in the area of HRM from IIT, Delhi.
She has held many leadership positions during her tenure at IILM. She has been the Dean of both UG and PG programs and is currently responsible for initiating & managing and International Partnerships at IILM.
She has extensive teaching experience of 20 plus years where she has been teaching undergraduate, graduate and executive-level courses at Delhi University and a few selected business schools in Delhi NCR.
She has been actively involved with training executives and has been regularly conducting workshops in the area of soft skills on topics like Emotional Intelligence; Attitude Change and Anger Management; Conflict and Stress Management in various private and public sector organizations like Engineers India Limited (EIL), Airport Authority of India (AAI), GAIL Training Institute, Directorate General Resettlement (DGR) & Military Engineer Services (MES).
Story telling and creativity
Rajesh’s work-life has been a tapestry of experiences. He’s been a sales and delivery man at a department store during college, he sold yellow pages to myriad businesses, worked as an artist’s apprentice - sculpting, painting, filing, scrubbing, and cleaning, not necessarily in that order.
For over 12 years he cut his teeth channel surfing, selling space on television networks - Zee, Discovery, and MTV. He even turned a few new leaves at The India Today Group and helped exporters ship smarter with FedEx.
They were lessons, all those years. Lessons in sales & marketing, innovation, creativity, strategy, and lessons in learning itself.
All of which has led him to Veeville, in the company of brilliant, happy, passionate folks determined to change the world.
His role in Veeville is to drive the creative and content development team. Over the years he has helped create super cool content, innumerable communication campaigns, revolutionary experiential learning workshops, employee engagement, and customer acquisition programs for organizations across a multitude of industries.
He also plays a key role in driving the robust technology vertical —VeevilleAI that aims to help organizations and Governments solve some of the world’s biggest and most interesting problems with Artificial Intelligence. The areas of focus include Agriculture, Industrial Application, and Education. VeevilleAI’s repertoire of AI products includes solutions such as recommendation systems, natural language understanding, predictive industrial maintenance solutions, vision-based systems, and more.
He fronts the business development effort that brings home the bread and is pretty fired up about the cheese and wine that has begun to follow.
His more than keen interests include films, cartooning, painting, wax sculpting, theatre, music, all kinds of nice-smelling books, cold beer, warm conversations... All of which seemed to contribute to the outstanding work Veeville is creating, as a team.
My Adventures in Advertising
He was the creative director behind the popular Kingfisher Ooo, la la lal la... Jingle(1996). He has over 30 years experience in advertising. With big agencies, big brands and has won several international, national and local awards. He was also an ex-state level Hockey player and certified Hockey coach, AIR guest voice-over artist and national hockey commentator, Psychodrama Therapist, Mental trainer for sportspersons, theatre and mime director for children. He is now in the process of obtaining an ICF Executive /Life Coach certification and is a mentor, consultant & coach who is passionate about unlocking people's potential.
He will speak about his experiences in how the famous jingle originated and other anecdotes in his career. A little about how advertising works, the glamour or the lack of it at close quarters, a bit about ideating and the creative process, the people, and the rapid changes it has seen leading up to the digital age.
How gender subversion became a norm
Dr Rajeev Kumaramkandath got his PhD from Manipal University in the year 2013. He was a recipient of the Sephis scholarship from the University of Amsterdam, and the GEXcel residential fellowship from Orebro University, Sweden and funded by the Swedish Research Council. He was a residential fellow at the Indian Institute of Advanced Studies, Shimla before joining CHRIST in 2015. His recent publications include an edited volume titled "Histories of Desire: Sexualities and Culture in Modern India" from the Cambridge University Press and an article in the pioneering intellectual journal Seminar magazine titled "Death of Language in Neoliberal Times". He is currently selected for the prestigious Erasmus mobility programme to visit FHWS - University of Applied Social Sciences, Germany as a visiting scholar.
Journaling travel adventures
Trishna Mohanty is a writer by profession and a passionate photographer whose works have been published in The New York Times, The Hindu, National Geographic Traveller and Conde Nast Traveller.
Demystifying the ad world
An advertising professional who has worked in various capacities in leading advertising agencies like Pink Lemonade, Origami and Autumn Grey, Vidisha is presently associated with Leo Burnett Orchard, Bangalore branch as Brand Associate where she manages print, brochures, logo design and 360-degree campaigns
Citizen Journalism 101
Ms. Aruna Natarajan is a staff reporter at Citizen Matters, Chennai. She holds a Bachelor's degree in Economics and a Post Graduate Diploma in Journalism from the Asian College of Journalism.
SV Chaitanya Gudipaty: The changing newsroom
With a decade of experience as a journalist, Chaitanya has seen both sides of the print and online newsrooms. At Deccan Herald, Chaitanya's role swings from ensuring an online-first newsroom strategy to overseeing tech implementations that help the site scale new peaks.
He was part of the team that bolstered Moneycontrol's market-centric news outlook with an all-round news strategy, resulting in a phenomenal surge in the site's traffic metrics -- unique users and page views.
On the print side, Chaitanya has worked on the news desks at The Indian Express and The Economic Times. Besides, he has reported on personal technology, corporates, startups and more.
In conversation with Bill Grueskin
We will be in an exclusive conversation with Bill Grueskin - former deputy managing editor Wall Street Journal, editor in chief WSJ.COM, Executive Editor Bloomberg, and Dean Columbia Journalism School.
IDG and the World of Tech Journalism
Eric Knorr is the Editor in Chief of IDG’s enterprise websites: CIO, Computerworld, CSO, InfoWorld, and Network World. A technology journalist since the start of the PC era, he has developed content to serve the needs of IT professionals since the turn of the 21st century. He is the former Editor of PC World magazine, the creator of the best-selling The PC Bible, a founding editor of CNET, and the author of hundreds of articles to inform and support IT leaders and those who build, evaluate, and sustain technology for business. Eric has received Neal, ASBPE, and Computer Press Awards for journalistic excellence. He graduated from the University of Wisconsin, Madison with a BA in English.
Galen Gruman is San Francisco-based executive editor for global content at IDG’s enterprise sites, providing overall management of Africa, ASEAN, Australia, India, Middle East, Netherlands, and New Zealand editions of CIO, Computerworld, and CSO Online, and their editorial teams. His association with IDG began in 1990 as a freelance product reviewer for InfoWorld. He's focused on a variety of technologies and business issues over the years, including virtualization, mobile technology and business, user-centric computing and the digital workplace, enterprise deployment case studies, service-oriented architecture, diversity in the tech industry, macOS and iOS, Windows, and desktop publishing. He has a BA in Journalism and Political Science from the University of Southern California and he has interned at the Los Angeles Herald-Examiner and KABC-TV.
Charting the course of COVID-19 in India
Jacob John is Professor of Community Medicine at the Christian Medical College (CMC), Vellore, India, where he teaches infectious disease epidemiology. He received his M.D. in Community Medicine from CMC Vellore and his Ph.D. in public health from Imperial College London, UK. As part of the COVID-19 response in India, Professor Jacob supports research groups examining the epidemiology of the pandemic in multiple settings using a combination of mathematical modelling, clinical, and sero-epidemiological studies.
Justice System and Journalism
Most citizens have limited experience and knowledge of the justice system and rely on the media to understand its workings. This is a significant responsibility for the media since the justice system is complex and confusing.
In recent times, media coverage of the justice system has been criticised as being sensationalistic and lacking context. The freedom of the media to report on public institutions needs to be balanced with a responsibility to do so ethically and without impeding the fair administration of justice.
This course will equip participants with an understanding of the basics of the justice system and the tools to report fairly and accurately on legal developments and court cases. The course will be delivered by experts who specialise in the justice system and journalism.
Payment for the course will be collected on the day of the same at the venue.
Constructive Journalism: Bridging a Polarized World
Ulrik Haagerup is an international public speaker on leadership, media, democracy, innovation and strategy. He formerly worked as the executive director of News, Danish Broadcasting, DR and former Editor-in-chief at NORDJYSKE Media.
He was the chairman of the Center of Journalism at the University of Southern Denmark from 2002-2008. He worked as an investigative reporter and senior managing editor at Jyllands-Posten from 1986-1994.
He has been a member of the World Economic Forum Global Agenda Council on the Future of Journalism and has won The Cavling Prize in 1990.
He has also authored two books - “A Good Idea – Did You Get It?” (2005) and “Constructive News” (2014).
Parliamentarians for Global Goals Roundtable
2030beyond and NSoJ will host this Parliamentarians for the Global Goals Roundtable. The purpose of the meeting is mutual inspiration for parliamentary action on the 2030 Agenda, particularly aimed at exploring opportunities to establish a group of Parliamentarians for the Global Goals in the Indian Parliament.
A discussion on farm laws
Vinay K Sreenivasa is a Bangalore-based advocate. He has been working on issues of urban governance, urban poverty, and transport. He works with collectives such as street vendors' unions and garment workers' unions.
He also conducts workshops to make the law accessible to common people.
Pratiba Raman: Ground reporting, breaking news and adapting to digital technology
After graduating in Mass Communication from COMMITS in Bengaluru, Pratiba Raman was recruited as a correspondent by the Times of India to report news and present views. In a span of 13 years, her love for the job and her passion for storytelling helped her walk through the halls of print, broadcast and digital (online) media.
Having worked with NDTV and India Today and gaining substantial exposure to responsible journalism, she completed her recent stint with Asianet News Media and Entertainment Pvt Ltd, where she helped build the editorial strategy, creating and cultivating content for two national websites.
After stepping down as the editorial head of Asianet News Media and Entertainment Pvt Ltd in June, she forayed into the world of freelance, where she is constantly engaged with India Today and Amazon Prime, handling research and delivery of various creative assets involving a crime series.
Her motto is to charge youngsters with cultivating an interest in news and awareness of important issues that impact lives.
Aarti Mundkur: Identifying and dealing with sexual harassment in the workplace
Aarti Mundkur is a practising lawyer in Bangalore, having got her degree in law from Bangalore University. She also holds a Masters in social work from the Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Bombay.
She is currently enrolled as a doctoral student at National Law School of India, University, Bangalore.
Aarti is a founder member of the Alternative Law Forum, Bangalore- a non-profit society that integrates litigation with critical research, alternative dispute resolution, pedagogic interventions and more generally maintaining sustained legal interventions in various social issues, where she worked for 13 years before setting up her own practice. While at ALF, Aarti mainly worked in the broad area of women and violence.
She has served as a member of the Juvenile Justice Board, Bangalore.
- Has been part of several consultations on amendments to Juvenile Justice Act.
- part of the nationwide consultations on the amendment to sexual assault law.
- part of the drafting and recommending committee on the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act.
Kalyan Varma: Aiming for the perfect shot
Kalyan Varma is an Emmy nominated wildlife filmmaker, photographer and conservationist specialising in environment, ecology and conservation in India. He has worked on many landmark blue-chip wildlife series for the BBC and National Geographic channel. His work has appeared in many publications worldwide, including National Geographic, Nature, Guardian, BBC Wildlife, GEO, Smithsonian, Lonely Planet and other magazines.
Kalyan is actively involved in fostering community among photographers and wildlife conservationists. In 2004 he, along with a team of photographers, founded India Nature watch, an online community which now has become the largest platform for wildlife photographers in Asia. In 2015, he co-founded the slow-journalism initiative the Peepli project, which delves deep into unreported, under-reported themes. He is one of the co-founders of Nature InFocus, an annual festival focussed on nature photography and conservation.
He collaborates with wildlife scientists, conservationists, policymakers, activists and educators on conservation action, activism, documentation, books and film projects. Kalyan is an honorary associate with Nature Conservation Foundation.
He is the recipient of BBC Wildlife Photographer of the Year Award for Plants category, best in Animal behaviour in Poral el Planeta and Sanctuary ‘Wildlife Photographer of the year' award.
Kalyan hopes to combine an artist’s eye with a journalist’s curiosity and sense of storytelling in his visual style, resulting in a body of work which he hopes will inspire the viewer to discover more.
Ashwini N. V: Recognizing and dealing with emotional abuse
Ashwini N.V is the founder-director of Muktha Foundation, an organization committed to the prevention of interpersonal abuse and promotion of mental health. Previously, she was a faculty member in the Post Graduate Department of Psychological Counselling/Psychology at Montfort College, and Jain University, Bangalore. She is a counselling psychologist with practice and research interest in the area of intervention and prevention of interpersonal violence such as intimate partner violence, child abuse, bullying etc.
She was recognized as one of the '100 leaders under 30’ from across the globe for her idea titled ‘FOCUS formula to foster mental health in low and middle-income countries’ at St. Gallen Symposium, Switzerland in May 2015. Muktha Foundation was appreciated by Kailash Satyarthi, Nobel Peace Prize Winner for its collaboration with Young Indians of Confederation of Indian Industries (CII) for the Project - Masoom, a nation-wide initiative to prevent child sexual abuse in September 2017. She is the recipient of Rotary Bangalore’s Vocational Service Award 2018-19 for her work in the area of training and promotion of mental health.
In the year 2019, she directed a campaign titled ‘Child Safety, National Priority’ where she travelled non-stop 90 days from January 1st to April 1st, 2019 to all the 29 states and 3 union territories to conduct over 150+ training sessions on ‘Prevention of Child Sexual Abuse’, thereby becoming the first person to have done this in the country.
Rajesh Ramachandran: Through the eyes of a reporter
Rajesh Ramachandran is the Editor of The Tribune, Chandigarh, one of the oldest newspapers of the country and a former Editor-in-Chief of the national news magazine, Outlook. For about 25 years he has worked with some of India’s largest publications and a TV channel in Delhi, reporting war, insurgency, politics and government affairs.
Ramachandran’s political analysis and commentary appear in his regular column nous indica in The Tribune. Earlier, his column polibelly used to appear in The Economic Times. As a reporter, Ramachandran had covered the Kargil war for Hindustan Times; broken the coffin scam for The Times of India; and had extensively reported on the Maoist insurgency and the last Eelam war for NDTV.
Martyrdom to Freedom: 100 Years of Jallianwala Bagh is Ramachandran’s first book. He has edited this volume of essays on the centenary of the massacre by top Indian historians and it also has precious archival material from The Tribune - the only nationalist newspaper to have reported and investigated the massacre through the decades.
Abhijit Sudhakar: Keep it Short
Abhijit Sudhakar is an engineer by degree. He started his journey as a filmmaker by interning under Prakash Belwadi, a national award-winning director, on a TV series. He then joined Nirvana films as an intern and soon moved to the role of a post-production supervisor, before becoming the director’s assistant to Prakash Varma. Some notable campaigns he worked on include the Vodafone pug commercials, Incredible India and the Zoozoos.
His short films have won several accolades at various short film festivals in India. He has directed more than 100 ads for brands such as Cadburys, Bluestar, Perfetti, Ambipur, Axe, Brittannia, Grofers, Idea, Flipkart etc.
He currently co-owns the production house ZigZag Films, with Anupama Ahluwalia.
Dr. Shekhar Seshadri: Adapting to mental health challenges during uncertain times
Shekhar P. Seshadri is a psychiatrist and a professor of the Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry in NIMHANS, Bangalore, India. He has been associated with numerous mental health initiatives for decades. He has co-authored two books and has also written chapters as a guest author. He is known for his research work in life skills training, child sexual abuse, masculinity, women's mental health issues, and sexual minorities.
Prof. Seshadri will talk about the mental health challenges that arise during times of uncertainty such as this, and how one can adapt to these changes.
Bageshree S: Newsrooms and the New Normal
Ms Bageshree S is the Associate Editor at The Hindu.
She began her career with Deccan Herald, bringing out supplements like Sunday Herald, Articulations and the Deccan Herald Spectrum. She moved to The Times of India and later to The Hindu, and covered various path breaking stories. She has played a key role in making The Hindu paper's coverage of Karnataka more relevant, making it a leader in the state's news market. Currently, she heads the paper's Bangalore editorial operations as the Associate Editor.
Ms Bageshree will talk about how newsrooms function in the new normal, focusing on how, around the world, they have had to adapt and reinvent themselves to adjust to the new reality, keeping the safety of their employees and the time constraint to do so in mind. Bringing out news reports from accurate sources with timely updates in the current infodemic has also been a challenge - how have newsrooms reacted to and adapted to these changes?
Nidhi Razdan: Government Accountability and the Pandemic (Closed Door)
*This is a closed-door talk for NSoJ students, faculty, alumni and guests by invitation. If you have not received a personal invitation to attend this talk, you may still register here, and we will send you the highlights of the talk in due course.
Nidhi Razdan is an Indian journalist and a television personality. She is the executive editor of NDTV and is the primary anchor of NDTV 24x7 news show Left, Right & Centre. She has reported on a wide range of key political, economic, and social stories from the Indian subcontinent, covering Indian politics and foreign affairs closely, including the India-US nuclear deal, general elections, several state elections, all major news developments and elections in Jammu and Kashmir, the earthquakes in Gujarat in 2001 and Kashmir in 2005.
She has made documentaries from Pakistan-administered Kashmir, Tibet and the United Kingdom after the train bombings. She has also written a book titled Left, Right and Centre: The Idea of India. Razdan was awarded the Ramnath Goenka for excellence in Journalism for reporting from Jammu and Kashmir and North-East India. She has also received the Jammu and Kashmir State government award for her excellence in journalism.
NDTV won the IPI award for Excellence in Journalism, 2019, for its coverage of the rape and murder of a young girl in Kathua and the aftermath. The reporting was anchored by Nidhi Razdan.
NSoJ Conversations: Rebuilding India's Enterprises - Public Policy Responses
Dr Alexander Thomas (President, Association of Healthcare Providers India - AHPI), Augustus Azariah (HR Head, IBM India) and Manu Seshadri (Managing Partner, MSA) will be in conversation at NSoJ to discuss public policy responses to rebuilding India's enterprises, with a special focus on the healthcare, IT and SME sectors in India. The discussion will be moderated by Saswati Chakravarti (ex- ET editor) and Timothy Franklyn (NSoJ founder).
Nick Couldry: Remembering Journalism's Public Rationale: Media and Public Policy Responses to Covid
Nick Couldry is a sociologist of media and culture. He is Professor of Media Communications and Social Theory at the London School of Economics and Political Science, and from 2017 has been a Faculty Associate at Harvard’s Berkman Klein Center for Internet and Society.
In fall 2018 he was also a Visiting Professor at MIT. He jointly led, with Clemencia Rodriguez, the chapter on media and communications in the 22 chapters 2018 report of the International Panel on Social Progress. He is the author/editor of fourteen books including The Mediated Construction of Reality (with Andreas Hepp, Polity, 2016), Media, Society, World: Social Theory and Digital Media Practice (Polity 2012) and Why Voice Matters (Sage 2010). His latest books are The Costs of Connection and Media: Why It Matters (Polity: October 2019
Raghava KK speaks at NSoJ
Raghava KK is a renowned international artist, creativity expert, tech entrepreneur and five-time TED speaker named by CNN as one of 10 most remarkable people (2010). He was inducted into the National Geographic Society as an Emerging Explorer for bringing together Science, Art, and Technology in the field of exploration in 2013.
Political Union Discussion: Citizenship Amendment Act
Rising tensions across the country have thrown up several questions about the Citizenship (Amendment) Act. We seek answers to questions such as what the CAA means for the country and whether it is just a misunderstood humanitarian law. Panellists include Vikram Phadke (practising advocate), Aarti Mundkur (practising lawyer, founder-member of Alternative Law Forum) and Samar Halarnkar (reporter, columnist, former editor of Factchecker.in and IndiaSpend.org)
Open House 2019: Pursuing Careers in Media
Panel Discussion on pursuing careers in media, featuring leading journalists and media persons, such as - M. Baba Prasad (Former Editor at The Hindu, Bangalore), Maya Sharma (Reporter and Executive Editor - South at NDTV, Bengaluru), Suresh Menon (Sports journalist, author and former editor of Indian Express), Dipti Kumar (Director for Digital Engagement, U.S. Consulate General Chennai), Pinky Chandran (Co-Founder of Radio Active 90.4) and Ashish Chandra Sen (Independent media consultant and journalist).
Panel Discussion on Sports Betting
Panel discussion "Legalizing Sports Betting in India" to discuss the moral, societal and economic issues of sports betting. Panellists include Nandan Kamath (Sports lawyer), Sharan Kumar (horse racing journalist), and Vedam Jaishankar (sports journalist and NSoJ faculty member).
Laxmi Murthy: Ground Report on Kashmir's Information Blockade
A closed-door session with Laxmi Murthy of the Free Speech Collective / Network of Women in Media. Veteran journalist Laxmi Murthy will present her ground report on the information shutdown in place in Kashmir since August 5, 2019, co-produced with Geeta Seshu titled, "News Behind The Barbed Wire: Kashmir's Information Blockade"
Kanhaiya Kumar speaks at NSoJ
Our Keynote speaker for this year's Slant is Dr. Kanhaiya Kumar, former National leader of the All India Students Federation and presently, the National Executive Council member of Communist Party of India.
Francesca Folda: Solutions Journalism
“Journalism’s fight now is against fake news” - Francesca Folda, director of Global Communication, Amani Institute and former Editor-in-Chief, Sky.it (Sky Italia). Ms Folda has been working for about ten years as an investigative journalist. She is a member of the Ashoka Italia Advisory Board and Visiting Faculty at the School of Journalism at Università Statale in Milan.
Malavika Prasad: Abrogation of Article 370
Closed-door interaction with constitutional law scholar and newspaper columnist, Malavika Prasad on the legality of (i) the abrogation of Article 370 of the Indian Constitution; (ii) the division of the erstwhile state of J&K into two Union Territories; and (iii) the shut down of communications in J&K.
Brijesh Kalappa and Dr Harish Narasappa: Political Union Debate on Constitutional Safeguards to deal with Political Defections
This NSoJ Political Union Debate will take place in the context of political uncertainty in Karnataka. Shri Brijesh Kalappa and Shri Harish Narasappa will debate the constitutional safeguards available to deal with political defections, "resort politics" and "horse-trading", which are increasingly commonplace in Indian politics.
Demystifying Business Journalism
Raghu comes with fifteen years of experience in Business Journalism having worked in Senior Editorial roles with globally renowned India and United States-based Media Houses – ‘Business Standard’, ‘The Times of India’ and ‘NewsCorp’. Raghu specialises in analysis of Economic cycles, Corporate Restructuring, Mergers & Acquisition, Private Equity & Venture Capital Funds.
Dr. Aditya Sondhi speaks at NSoJ
Dr Aditya Sondhi, former Additional Advocate General of Karnataka, delivers his keynote address in Slant 2019.