Thiruvananthapuram: Malayala Manorama senior reporter Robin T Varghese has been awarded the first-ever Anil Radhakrishnan Development Journalism Fellowship constituted by the Kesari Memorial Journalists Trust in memory of S Anil Radhakrishnan, former Thiruvananthapuram bureau chief of The Hindu.
Varghese, who is presently working in the Kochi unit of the Malayala Manorama, was selected by a panel comprising of former head of the Journalism department at Kerala University Prof V Vijayakumar, former additional director of the Public Relations Department P S Rajasekharan, Kerala Raj Bhavan Public Relations Officer S D Prince, Kesari Trust chairman Suresh Vellimangalam and Samagra Shiksha Kerala programme officer S S Sindhu.
Varghese, who worked in Malayala Manorama's Thiruvananthapuram, Thodupuzha and Chennai bureaus, is a postgraduate in English and Communicative Studies. He also holds an M Phil and PG diploma in Journalism.
A native of Adoor, Pathanamthitta, Varghese is the son of T S Varghese and Thankamma Varghese. He is married to Linju Rajan and has a daughter Hitha Elsa.
The fellowship comprises an amount of Rs 50,000 and is meant for authoring an insightful book on Kerala's development in areas such as infrastructure, tourism, public transport systems, transportation management and State finances. It was launched in collaboration with the family of the late journalist.
