“The idea behind the awards is to celebrate excellent journalism and showcase outstanding contributions and individuals every year. And in just two years, the RNG Awards has grown into a pan-Indian institution — it has honoured talent not just in the English language media but from small regional language newspapers as well,” said Viveck Goenka, Chairman of the Ramnath Goenka Foundation.

The awards will be for the following categories: Journalist of the Year (Print & TV), Reporting from J&K and the Northeast (Print & TV); Excellence in Journalism, Hindi (Print & Broadcast); Excellence in Journalism, Regional Languages (Print & Broadcast); Reporting on Environment (Print & Broadcast); Reporting India Invisible (Print & Broadcast); Foreign Correspondent Covering India ( Print, Radio or TV); Business and Economic Journalism (Print & Broadcast); Political Reporting (Print & TV); Sports Journalism (Print & TV); Film & TV Journalism (Print &TV); Books (Non-fiction); Reporting on HIV/AIDS (Print, English & Marathi); and Civic Reporting (Print).

The award for HIV/AIDS reporting is instituted in association with USAID, Avert Society and Health Communication Partnership/Johns Hopkins University (HCP/JHU). The two award winners, one each in English and Marathi, will be nominated to attend the three-week Leadership in Strategic Health Communication Workshop at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health/Centre for Communication Programs in Baltimore, USA, in June 2008.

The new award for civic reporting has been instituted in memory of the former Resident Editor of The Indian Express in Pune, Prakash Kardaley. This award will honour a print journalist whose sustained effort highlights a civic issue and forces the authorities to find a solution to it. Kardaley, who defined pro-active journalism in Pune, was also one of the prime movers behind the Right to Information Act.

The presenting sponsor of the RNG Awards for Excellence in Journalism this year will be S Kumars Nationwide Limited. The last date for submission of entries is April 15, 2008. Reports published or telecast between April 1, 2006, and December 31, 2007, are eligible to be submitted for this year’s awards.

The RNG Excellence in Journalism Awards, which was set up in the centenary year of the founder of the Express Group, Ramnath Goenka, has acknowledged the finest in print and broadcast journalism, in English and regional languages, the past two years. In the first year, Varghese K George of The Indian Express and Praveen Swamy of Frontline shared the Journalist of the Year (Print) while NDTV’s Barkha Dutt was awarded the Journalist of the Year (TV). Last year, Ritu Sarin of The Indian Express won the Journalist of the Year (Print) and CNN-IBN’s Rajdeep Sardesai, Journalist of the Year (TV).