The Indian Express journalist Ritu Sarin was presented the Prem Bhatia Award for excellence in political reporting and analysis,while Raj Kumar Keswani,whose work on the Bhopal gas tragedy is highly acclaimed,was given the award for environmental journalism at a ceremony organised by the Prem Bhatia Memorial Trust on Wednesday evening. The Trust named after the eminent journalist has awarded 12 journalists for political writing and four for environmental reporting. Besides this,it has also given away 20 scholarships to young journalists and published three books in its 14 years of activity. Sarin,chief of the investigation bureau at Express,said: This nomination from the group of veteran journalists associated with the Trust is great encouragement. I am also happy that the foundation has made a departure from previous years to recognise in-depth news reporting,instead of mainstream political writing. Former Dainik Bhaskar employee Keswani,who currently runs a website called The Bhopal Post,said: Getting such an award is an honour,especially as I have been recognised with an issue such as the Bhopal gas tragedy. The battle has been going on for several years but it is only now that people have woken up to the issue. The award has highlighted the fact that the Bhopal gas tragedy was not an accident. The award ceremony was followed by the 15th Prem Bhatia Memorial Lecture on Rising China,Emerging India and a Polycentric World by Chandrashekhar Dasgupta,a former diplomat. In his opening remarks,Dasgupta pointed out the similarities and differences between the two countries. China embarked on sweeping economic reforms by the end of the 1970s. Under Deng Xiaoping,Beijing launched the ambitious Four Modernizations policy in December 1978. In India. it was only in the early 1990s that then Prime Minister Narasimha Rao and finance minister Manmohan Singh successfully embarked on a programme of systemic reforms, Dasgupta said. The latest Chinese study of the countrys age profile shows the ratio of the people of working age to the total population will start shrinking by 2015. In Indias case,this is expected to occur at a much later date. Many recent projections suggest Indias growth rate may catch up with and surpass Chinas in the next decade, he added. Dasgupta concluded that the overall prospects for India-China bilateral relations are quite promising,provided that neither side misunderstands the intentions or capabilities of the other. Current trends suggest the world is moving towards a polycentric order. By 2025,a number of countries are likely to act as autonomous power centres. The United States will continue to be the prominent power but China may begin to emerge as a rival and near-equal.this may also be the case with regard to the gap between China and India.
