Ravish Kumar to discuss ‘What is National about India’s National Media?’

Ravish Kumar, an Indian TV anchor, writer, and journalist, will speak at Yale on Tuesday, Oct. 23, as a Poynter Fellow in Journalism. His talk — “What is National about India’s National Media?” — will draw from experience reporting on the BJP and Indian national political media.

The event will take place at 4:30 p.m. in Luce Hall Auditorium, at 34 Hillhouse Avenue. It is free and open to the public. The talk is co-sponsored by the South Asian Studies Council and will be delivered in Hindi; a translation of the lecture in English will be available in handouts at the event.

Kumar is a well-known TV anchor as well as the senior executive editor at NDTV India, the Hindi news channel of the NDTV news network. He hosts a number of programs including the channel’s flagship weekday show, “Prime Time,” as well as “Hum Log” and “Ravish Ki Report.” He has written two books, “Ishq Mein Shahar Hona” (Rajkamal Prakashan [Hindi], 2008) and “The Free Voice: On Democracy, Culture, and the Nation” (Speaking Tiger, 2018).

In 2010, Kumar was awarded the Ganesh Shankar Vidyarthi Award for Hindi Journalism and Creative Literature. In 2013, he was awarded the Ramnath Goenka Excellence in Journalism Award for Journalist of the Year. In 2017, he was given the same award for the broadcast category in Hindi language. He was included in the list of 100 most influential Indians in The Indian Express and was named the best journalist of the year in 2015 by the Mumbai Press Club. In 2017, he was honored with the first Kuldip Nayar journalism award for his contributions to the field of journalism.

The Poynter Fellowship in Journalism was established by Nelson Poynter, who received his master’s degree in 1927 from Yale. The fellowship brings to campus distinguished reporters, editors and others who have made important contributions to the media. Among recent Poynter fellows are Vladimir Pozner, Lavern Berry, Anita Dunn, and Kathleen Hall Jamieson.