NDTV science editor Pallava Bagla bags ICAR award for agriculture reporting

NEW DELHI: NDTV Science Editor Pallava Bagla today received the 'ICAR Chaudhary Charan Singh Award' for excellence in agriculture reporting for 2013 from Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

Bhagwan Dass, a journalist from Punjab, also received the award in the print category at the 86th Foundation Day of the government's research body Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR).

Bagla, a botanist by training, has been reporting on agricultural research and development for the last 25 years.

Earlier in 2003, he became the first Indian to win the CGIAR 'Outstanding Journalism' award from the UN sponsored Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research (CGIAR) head quartered at The World Bank in Washington DC.

In 2010 he became the first Asian to get the prestigious 'David Perlman Award for Excellence in Science Journalism'.

Besides journalists, Modi conferred national award 'Jagjivan Ram Abhinav Kisan Puruskar' on a progressive farmer Mohammed Idris Quadri from Karnataka. He also gave away zonal awards to eight farmers.

The award 'N G Ranga Farmer Award for Diversified Agriculture' was given away to Haryana-based food processing entrepreneur Krishna Yadav for emerging as a role model for other fellow farmers and farm women.

She is processing 152 types of products like pickles, chutneys, murabba, jam, wheat flour and others.

The 'NASI-ICAR Award' for innovation and research in farm implements was bagged by Krishna Pratap Singh, senior scientist at Bhopal-based Central Institute of Agriculture Engineering.

'Sardar Patel Outanding ICAR institution Award' was given to Karnal-based National Dairy Research Institute, Coimbatore- based Sugarcane Breeding Institute and Hyderabad-based Directorate of Poultry Research.