Maitri Porecha and Satyasundar Barik of The Hindu after receiving the Ramnath Goenka Excellence in Journalism Awards
| Photo Credit: Special Arrangement.
Two journalists at The Hindu were felicitated by President Droupadi Murmu at the 19th Ramnath Goenka Excellence in Journalism Awards 2025. Maitri Porecha, Senior Assistant Editor, won the award for Politics and Government in the print category, and Satyasundar Barik, The Hindu’s Odisha correspondent, won the award in the Uncovering Invisible India category.
Ms. Porecha won the award for her series of stories in the wake of the Balasore railway tragedy in June 2023, in which at least 296 people lost their lives. The series covered multiple aspects of the tragedy, ranging from ground reporting to exposing the technical errors of the railways that led to the accident. The award cites reporting on how Aadhaar was used to identify the deceased and disrupted DNA testing for over 50 bodies due to non-retrieval of proper samples.
Mr. Barik won for two stories: The missing daughters of Odisha’s border villages, published in December 2023, highlighted the distressing reality of young girls disappearing from Odisha’s border villages, particularly from Sundargarh district; and a February 2024 story covering agri-entrepreneurship in Nabarangpur, one of India’s poorest districts.
The jury for the awards included retired Supreme Court justice B.N. Srikrishna; Rohini Nilekani, chairperson of Rohini Nilekani Philanthropies; and S.Y. Quraishi, former Chief Election Commissioner.
Published – March 19, 2025 10:21 pm IST