2024
Ajoy Ashirwad Mahaprashasta, Political Affairs Editor, The Wire, New Delhi. Ajoy’s expert knowledge of India’s complex political scene makes him an influential voice at The Wire, the highly regarded digital platform driven entirely by public donations. He leads a team of 15 journalists covering national politics and social issues across the country. Earlier, at Frontline magazine, he wrote about issues affecting the lives of Indians, including religious extremism and human rights, and covered two of the country’s most complex provinces, Uttar Pradesh and Bihar.
2023
Sagar Choudhary, Staff Writer, The Caravan Magazine, Bihar. Sagar writes investigative, longform features and opinion pieces on the difficult subjects of caste, communal and ethnic violence, religion, corporate corruption and rightwing terrorism. His personal story is one of rising above caste discrimination to pursue his education and dream of becoming a journalist. A former executive editor described Sagar as being “among the finest one per cent” to work at The Caravan.
Ami Shah, Senior Assistant Editor, ET Prime, Mumbai. Ami is a financial journalist who has gathered knowledge, experience and awards in a career spanning 18 years in print and online. She has covered court battles and scams, the crash and recovery of stock markets in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic. In March, she was the only journalist in a list of India’s Top Women In Finance 2023. She wants to know how artificial intelligence is impacting newsrooms.
2022
Jyoti Shinoli, Senior Reporter, People’s Archive of Rural India (PARI), Mumbai. Jyoti is an award-winning journalist who tells stories about people in far flung corners of India that are largely ignored, delivering close-up insights of how they are affected by deprivation, inequality and health and environmental issues. She is our first Fellow from PARI, founded by the respected journalist and Magsaysay Award winner P. Sainath.
Arunabh Saikia, Special Correspondent, Scroll.in, New Delhi. Arunabh is an engineer who became a journalist and covers politics, health and policy matters. He made his mark in investigative reporting and covering hard issues ranging from ethnic and religious conflict to disastrous government missteps during the pandemic. His interests are cricket, Scandinavian noir crime fiction and cooking.
2021
Pankaj Upadhyay, Senior Special Correspondent, Aaj Tak and India Today, Mumbai. Pankaj covers politics and civic affairs, but his heart lies in telling human interest stories, especially from India’s remote areas. He left his hometown in Uttarakhand to chase his dreams of becoming a journalist. He’s a foodie, enjoys travel vlogging and making short films, and has published a novel, Homecoming.
Aprajita Sharma, Freelance Financial Journalist, New Delhi. Aprajita is a financial journalist who specialises in personal finance and set her sights on gaining knowledge and expertise to be more effective in raising the level of financial literacy. She enjoys reading non-fiction, classical dance and music, and is a health and fitness enthusiast.
2019
Ashwini Shrivastava, Assistant Editor, Press Trust of India. Ashwini is Assistant Editor with the Press Trust of India. He covers the President’s Office and government policies. Ashwini has written impactful stories about corruption, money-laundering and irregularities in government agencies, as well as on terrorism and left-wing extremism, and is a commentator on contemporary issues on All India Radio. His interests are interacting with people and wildlife. For his AJF research project, he wants to examine and learn from Singapore’s approach to raising GST while other countries struggle with it.
Jayshree Pyasi, Staff Reporter, Mint, HT Media, Mumbai. A journalist for seven years, Jayshree reports on the Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi), corporate fraud and scams. She made her mark as a young reporter covering hard beats and won the Rising Star Award 2017 at HT Media for her work at Mint, the Hindustan Times (HT) Group’s business daily. Her interests include travelling, reading and watching content from other countries. For her AJF, she wants to examine cross-border regulatory coordination within ASEAN for growth of securities markets
2018
Divya Chandrababu made her mark reporting on issues ranging from corruption to toxic garbage landfills and investigating child sexual abuse, winning awards while working as a full-time journalist based in Chennai, Tamil Nadu. Now a freelance writer, she wants to find out why Singapore remains a model for Chennai administrators, and her research project will focus on public transport and waste management. A former professional chess player, she indulges in dance and travel in her free time.
Sachin Dave is a senior assistant editor at The Economic Times, India’s best-read business daily. He is based in Mumbai and writes on taxation, corporate finance and business fraud. For his AJF research project, he will examine the long-term impact of changes to the Double Taxation Avoidance Agreement between India and Singapore and Mauritius.
2017
Vikhar Ahmed Sayeed is based in Bengaluru (Bangalore) and is a senior assistant editor with Frontline, a fortnightly news magazine published in India that celebrates long-form enterprise journalism. He writes regularly about class, caste, gender and religion and travels to rural areas to unearth powerful stories about ignored communities. Vikhar, who has a master’s degree in history, will spend the AJF doing research on Indian soldiers in Singapore during World War II.
Chaitanya Marpakwar is a senior correspondent covering the civics and politics beat for the Mumbai Mirror in Mumbai. He has made an impact with campaign reporting to keep city parks open longer, to improve footpaths for pedestrians, upgrade street lighting and provide more public toilets. He will research Singapore’s “clean and green” efforts to create more livable community spaces. He also hopes to practise his Mandarin.
2016
Sohini Chattopadhyay. Freelancer, Kolkata. Sohini is an award-winning writer of in-depth features and remains dedicated to long-form storytelling. While in Singapore she will examine various facets of an ageing society and is particularly interested in learning about the second careers and lives of Singaporeans past the official retirement age of 62.
Dipti Nagpaul-D’Souza. Special correspondent, Indian Express, Mumbai. Over a decade as a reporter and feature writer, Dipti has made her mark with strong, thoughtful people stories. She wants to take a close-up look at migrant worker living quarters in Singapore and how they compare with worker settlements in India.
2015
Alka Dhupkar. News editor at Mumbai Mirror. She has won multiple awards including a 2012 Ramnath Goenka Award for Excellence in Journalism. She wants to do a video documentary on Singapore’s healthcare.
Deepu Sebastian Edmond. Principal Correspondent at The Indian Express. Deepu was assigned as his newspaper’s sole correspondent covering the state of Jharkhand, reporting on issues such as tribal identity, left-wing extremism, mining, human trafficking and deprivation arising from poor governance. He wants to write a series comparing the founding parties of India and Singapore, Congress and the PAP.
2014
Sundaresha Subramanian. Senior assistant editor with Business Standard, New Delhi. Writes on markets and investment, and weekend features.
Nishima K. Senior sub-editor and writer with Malayalam-language Manorama Weekly, India’s biggest selling magazine. Involved in Manorama’s CSR projects.
2013
Imran Ahmed Siddiqui. Special correspondent at The Telegraph, New Delhi, covering Indian government’s home ministry, internal security and intelligence. Project: The symbolic significance which Singapore has assumed in the minds of politicians and policymakers in India.
Jadhav Radheshyam Bapu. Special correspondent at The Times of India, Pune, covering development issues and produces investigative stories on issues related to urbanization and poverty. Project: Singapore’s model for sustainable development: land policies.
2012
Sangeeta Singh: National Competition correspondent for India’s second largest business daily. Mint (English), New Delhi. Project: Singapore as a financial hub.
Vaishalli Chandra. Freelance writer on social issues, the Alternative (English), Bangalore, also writing for DNA and other media. Project: Inclusive cities.
2011
Amitava Gupta. Senior sub-editor, Anandabazar Patrika, Kolkata. Economics writer, focusing on physical and social infrastructure. Topic: Private education.
Karan Jajati. Orissa Bureau chief, CNN-IBN, Bhubaneswar. Helped launched the Orissa bureau of this CNN franchise. Topic: Is excellent journalism bad business?
2010
Madhumita Datta. A senior journalist with Aajkal, a Bengali-language newspaper in Kolkata. Team leader for 50 reporters and in charge of newspaper’s website. Wants to study cyberterrorism.
Pal Chauhan Chanchal. Auto and aviation industry correspondent for Economic Times, based in New Delhi. Interested in Singapore’s transport policies.
2009
Deepal Trivedi. Editor and writer at Sambhaav Media (English), Ahmedabad. Plans to research multiculturalism and secularism in Singapore.
Eshwar Sundaresan. Book writer and freelance columnist at New Indian Express, Mangalore Times (English), Bangalore. Plans to research Indian IT professionals and companies in Singapore.