January 2015 – February 2020 : Program Director of  “Media Ambassadors India – Germany” 

As Program Director of the Indo-German Exchange Program “Media Ambassadors India – Germany”, I had the opportunity of working together with world renowned institutions like the Robert Bosch Stiftung GmbH , the International Media Center of the HAW Hamburg and the Center for Media Competence of the University of Tübingen . The aim of this program was to promote international understanding by enabling select mid-career and senior journalists to stay in India/Germany, live there for three months while working on their own story ideas. They also had a chance to attend customized class room sessions and work with local media outlets of international repute. This engagement has been a very rewarding experience since it allowed me to observe, understand and analyze India and Germany, the two countries I call home. 

During this time, my responsibilities included :

• Conceptualization and Implementation of a qualitative international exchange program

I had a chance to conceptualize and design this international exchange program in a manner which I found to be most effective. In order to achieve the goal of the program, it was important for the participating journalists to be exposed to diverse topics that influenced the socio-political, cultural debates in India and Germany. To this effect, while consulting with my other colleagues and our cooperation partners, I regularly designed 4-6 weeks training programs  for the participating journalists focussing on issues like Rise of Populism, Media Ethics, Polarisation of Media, Fake News, Hate Speech, Refugee policy, Caste- and Religion based discrimination, Digitalization, Data Journalism. These sessions were planned based on the individual profiles and research interests of each fellow.

• Intercultural and International Communication

Communications was an integral part of this job profile. I had to create an efficient communication strategy on three different levels by: 
– employing social media as well as classical communication channels like Newsletters, Emails to advertise the fellowship program.
– ensuring a smooth communication between multiple cooperation partners. 
– efficiently communicating complex insights and contexts to the participating journalists. 

• International stakeholder management and implementing cross-functional projects

The program involved multiple stakeholders like various departments in the University and the Foundation, international partners like Asian College of Journalism, Symbiosis Institute of Media and Communication Studies, and last but not least, a diverse group of participating journalists. In order to ensure a smooth running of the program, I was in-charge of managing excellent working relations with all of them.

Additionally, for an effective running of the program, I also had to develop a comprehensive, sustainable network of media houses (like The Times of India, The Caravan magazine, Der Spiegel, Süddeutsche Zeitung, Handelsblatt, Indian Express), award winning journalists and media experts (like N. Ram, P. Sainath, Josy Joseph, Tabea Grzesyk, Sabina Matthay, Dr. Christian Stöcker, Souad Mekhennet), politicians (like Dr. Shashi Tharoor, Prakash Javdekar, Olaf Scholz, Annette Widmann-Mauz, Jakob von Weizsäcker, Geoffrey van Orden), established academicians (like Dr. Vikas Pathak, Dr. Ruchi Jaggi, Prof. Dr. Steffen Burkhardt, Prof. Dr. Susanne Marschall, Dr. David Stadelmann, Dr. Ingrid Stapf), Think Tanks and Foundations, the Foreign Office, some organs of the EU and members from the civil society in India and Germany. 

• Knowledge and Expertise of current socio-political discourses

A part of my job also involved consistently providing insights, context analysis as well as an expert knowledge of contemporary socio-political and cultural issues, of Media and Media systems in the host country to the participating journalists. 

• Project Management

In addition to the other elements of project management already mentioned, I was also responsible for managing a yearly budget of 350,000€ as well as creating a financial report at the end of each year. 

• Supervision and Guidance

Over a course of five years, I worked together with and supervised over 78 mid-career and senior journalists from India, Germany and Austria who were selected as fellows of this prestigious fellowship program. 

• Founding of the Indo‑German Media Network e.V.

I was actively involved in the founding of the Indo-German Media Network, an association initially formed by the Alumni of the fellowship program. The Network is now open to other interested journalists and mediamakers as well. 

• Highlights

In 2016, the former German Ambassador to India Dr. Martin Ney explicitly bestowed praise on the program “Media Ambassadors India – Germany” under my leadership for the important role it played in the Indo-German Relations.

In 2018, I was invited to the Bürgerfest hosted by the President of the Federal Republic of Germany Frank Walter Steinmeier in recognition of my work and contribution to the civil society.