Ravish Kumar bags Magsaysay Award

Manila: Senior Indian journalist Ravish Kumar on Friday was awarded this year's Ramon Magsaysay Award, regarded as the Asian version of the Nobel Prize.

Kumar, 44, who is NDTV India's senior executive editor, is one of India's most influential TV journalists, the award citation by the Ramon Magsaysay Award Foundation said.

He is among five individuals who were declared winners of the award, which is Asia's premier prize and highest honour and celebrates greatness of spirit and transformative leadership in Asia.

Kumar, born in Jitwarpur village in Bihar, joined New Delhi Television Network (NDTV) in 1996 and worked his way up from being a field reporter.

After NDTV launched its 24-hour Hindi-language news channel--NDTV India--targeting the country's 422 million native speakers of Hindi, he was given his own daily show, 'Prime Time'. Kumar's 'Prime Time' programme "deals with real-life, under-reported problems of ordinary people", it added. "If you have become the voice of the people, you are a journalist," the citation added.

As an anchor, Kumar is sober, incisive and well-informed, it said. His more important distinction, however, comes from the kind of journalism he represents, the citation added.