Alappuzha: Mudassir Ahmad Kuloo, an independent journalist from Kashmir, has been awarded the G Santha Teacher Memorial Journalism Award 2021.
The thirty-three-year-old pursued his Masters in Mass Communication and Journalism from the University of Kashmir and has been a Senior Correspondent with The Kashmir Monitor for six years.
His reports have also featured in The Third Pole, TRT World, First Post, The Tehelka, HuffPost, CNBC TV and Dainik Bhaskar among others.
Mudassir was chosen from a list of three shortlisted Indian journalists.
Ashfaq ul Hassan, the editor of The Kashmir Monitor terms Mudassir as a dependable journalist who covers all possible angles of a story. “His honest, enthusiastic and realistic approach is highly commendable,” says Ashfaq.
Ishtiyaq Ahmad, the editor of Kashmir Indepth, says Mudassir is an extremely intelligent journalist who has always strived to highlight issues of human rights, gender, social justice, environment and health. “A perfect team man who has his ear to the ground,” says Ishtiyaq.
Mudassir will be presented the award on November 6 in Bengaluru, during the 5th Guru Kalam Memorial Lecture, an annual national event organised by the Inspired India Foundation to commemorate the birth anniversary of former President Dr APJ Abdul Kalam.
For the fifth year, the jury included aerospace and defence scientists, writers, teachers and activists in addition to the trustees of IIF.
The award carries a specially-crafted stone memento made by noted mural artist M S Chandramouli from Karnataka in addition to Rs 25,000 as a cash component.
Instituted by the Inspired Indian Foundation, the award commemorates the memory of G Shantha, an English teacher hailing from Thalavadi in Kerala’s Alappuzha district.
Born in 1942, she dedicated her career to instilling in her young wards an unshakeable determination to chase their dreams wherever she taught, including at Seethalakshmi Ramaswami College, Trichy, Tamil Nadu, and Devasvom Board College, Thalayolaparambu, Kerala, and Mahatma High School for Girls, Chennithala, Kerala.
She worked selflessly to promote the English language among rural kids, and also found time to write short stories and poetry, without ever craving for the limelight. She passed away in 2007 at the age of 65.
Rekha Satheesh, a senior chief sub-editor with The New Indian Express, Kochi, was the first recipient of the award in 2016, while Rajeev Kumar Mishra, a chief sub-editor with the Bengaluru edition of Rajasthan Patrika, won the honour in 2017.
The award went to Jugal Purohit, a senior broadcast journalist with the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) India, in 2018 and in 2019 M Nanjundaswamy, a Mysuru-based stringer of Kannada daily Vijay Karnataka was the recipient.