Almost 100 years later, his words couldn’t be more relevant.

So if the world’s oldest democracy, the United States, has the Pulitzer Prizes, the world’s largest democracy has to have an award not only matching it in magnitude and scale but more diverse in its sweep.

An award whose reputation as the most prestigious and the most sought-after in journalism then becomes a major incentive for high-quality journalism in India. And, at a time when we are being seen as a knowledge hub, focuses national and international attention on the finest of what our journalism has to offer.

That’s why the Ramnath Goenka Foundation, set up in his centenary year, decided that India needs the Excellence in Journalism Awards.

Just before I came here, I was reading and watching the stories that have got the awards. The one common element to all — besides, of course, the fact that they illustrate the highest standards of the profession — is that all these stories are stories that NEEDED excellence and commitment, compassion and courage.

This is not merely professionalism. These are stories that could not have been done any way other than the way they were done.

That’s why we are here to applaud these journalists. It’s our duty.

Among the tributes paid to Ramnathji after his death in 1991 was a letter that came to a newspaper. The writer recalled how she, with some friends from college, thumbed a lift in Delhi from, and I quote, ‘‘an old man driving a nondescript Fiat’’. One of the young women asked him what he did at The Indian Express.

... contd.