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Tarakanath Das Foundation to honor Prof Sree Sreenivasan, SAJA

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Prof Sree Sreenivasan and South Asian Journalists Association (SAJA) will receive this year’s Tarakanath Das Foundation award for contributions to Indo-American understanding. The award will be presented on March 6 at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, where Sreenivasan is the chief digital officer.

Affectionately called as Sree, Sreenivasan has spent the last two decades working to promote better connections between the United States and South Asia. He spent more than 21 years at Columbia Journalism School and Columbia University as a professor, dean of student affairs and, eventually, as Columbia's first chief digital officer, before moving to the Metropolitan Museum.

As co-founder and first president of SAJA, the South Asia Journalists Association, he helped bring together a community of journalists at the exact time that the community of Indians and other South Asians changed in fascinating ways. Since 2013, he has been the first Chief Digital Officer of the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

He has been named by Newsweek as one of the 40 most influential South Asians in the US; by India Abroad as one of the 50 most influential Indians in America and by GQ India as one of the 30 most influential digital Indians globally. Besides his professional duties, Sree has been most helpful to the Foundation over the years, and we feel that he is one of the most extraordinarily helpful and valuable members of the South Asian community in the United States. 

SAJA, the South Asian Journalists Association, is a thriving organization working in the U.S. and Canada. Founded in March 1994 with 18 members, today it connects and serves more than 1,000 journalists and is a resource for those covering South Asia and the South Asian diaspora. Even as more South Asians have risen to the top ranks of US journalism, SAJA continues to play a role mentoring young media professionals and bringing attention to little-covered stories in the community.

In recent years, SAJA has given away more than $250,000 in scholarships and awards and will be giving away $60,000 again this year through the support of the Arun I. and Asmita Bhatia Foundation and other donors; and more than $20,000 for the landmark SAJA Reporting Fellowships through the support of the Mahadeva Family Foundation. Other donors include CNN & Turner Broadcasting Corporation, Bloomberg, Dow Jones Foundation, Coca-Cola Company, New World Medical Group and Gaur Family Foundation. 

Started in 1935, it gives grants to South Asian students in the US and to small NGOs in India. The annual award, given since 1982, is for outstanding contributions to US-India understanding. Winners are most often individuals, but sometimes, they are institutions. Among its awardees are Anita Desai; Merchant, Ivory and Jhabvala; Abraham Verghese; Amar Bose; and RK Narayan.


PAST WINNERS

1982: R. K. Narayan, writer
1983: Robert F. Goheen, diplomat
1984: A. K. Ramanujan, poet, translator, scholar, teacher
1985: Edward C. Dimock, Jr., scholar, translator, teacher
1986: Merchant, Ivory, Jhabvala, film-makers
1987: S. Chandrasekhar, scientist, teacher
1988: Stella Kramrisch, art historian, teacher
1989: Anita Desai, writer
1991: World Music Institute
1992: Indrani, dancer and dance teacher
1993: Madhur Jaffrey, actress, author
1994: Bernard S. Cohn, anthropologist, scholar, teacher
1995: Phillips Talbot, journalist, diplomat
1996: Amar G. Bose, audio-engineer, teacher, businessman
1997: Myron Weiner, political scientist, scholar, teacher
1998: Tanjore Viswanathan, musician, teacher
1999: Ainslie T. Embree, historian, teacher, administrator
2000: Bharati Mukherjee, writer
2001: Selig Harrison, scholar, journalist
2002: Abraham Verghese, doctor, writer
2003: Joseph Elder, scholar, administrator, film maker
2005: Sakhi for South Asian Women
2008: Gopal Raju, founder of India Abroad
2010: The American Institute of Indian Studies
2012: Dr. Siddartha Mukherjee, author, oncologist, Pulitzer Prize winner

2014: Sree Sreenivasan, teacher and connector

SAJA, South Asian Journalists Association

http://www.columbia.edu/cu/sai/tdas.html