NEW DELHI: Former BBC Hindi radio journalist and Doordarshan newsreader, Rama Pandey, was honoured with the ‘Bharat Gaurav Award’ for her contribution towards Journalism and Activism with a Lifetime Achievement Award in London recently.

The award was given by NRI Organisation Sanskriti Yuva Sangstha at the House of Commons inside the British Parliament.

Other notable awardees included PepsiCo Chaiman & CEO Indra K Nooyi, Nobel laureate Kailash Satyarthi, former hockey captain Major Dhayan Chand, and ‘Google Boy’ Kautilya.

Rama Pandey had gained fame with her series ‘Jaane Apna Desh’. With over 250 episodes, the series has preserved India’s forgotten heritage and culture. The writer, poet, journalist, and artist has brought television some interesting and unknown facts about India.

Receiving the award, Pandey said, “The kind of stories, histories and the mystery revolving around India are worth exploring and talking about. I have just fed my curiosity and with every curious question. I am glad I could contribute to my country.”

Over the years, personalities like actor Manoj Kumar, singer Jagjit Singh, creative ad filmmaker Piyush Pandey, and many others have been honoured with this prestigious award. The Sanskriti Yuva Sanstha has been working for the past seventeen years with a vision to enhance and help Indian culture and civilization to prosper, grow and mark its presence in not only in India but all around the world through a series of innovative social programmes.

Pandey has had an extensive career of 40 years in diverse fields like broadcasting, acting/theatre, teaching, writing, programme presentation, event management and film production / direction at national and international levels.

She began her career as a child artist. Her professional experience includes working with DD India and BBC Hindi and her film industry experience includes acting in eight art films, directing 300 TV films, including four 35mm full length feature films.

She worked with Doordarshan as a Producer at a time when DD was the only source of household entertainment and did some pioneering projects for rural audiences. At BBC Hindi Service at London, she simultaneously contributed regularly to BBC Asian Television and significantly towards some major field projects of the BBC in Asia.

She has an illustrious writing career with several serials, stories, programmes, films, documentaries to her credit. She has written, produced and directed several multi-episode serials (including Shabash Begum, Suno Kahani, Jaane Apna Desh), and several hundred tele-films, news capsules & documentaries.

She was the first woman Producer Director from India at BBC Radio, London (1981), was the first Producer Director / Presenter of Indian Satellite Programmes “SITE” in 1972-73 and was the first Presenter of “Yuv Vani”.