Amitabha Roychowdhury Having joined the premier news agency, Press Trust of India, in 1984, I started on the editorial side, handling copies both on national and international desks for about five years. I was shifted to reporting thereafter, where I covered law and order, the Delhi government and the assembly. In 1991, I became the Chief Reporter of the agency. My tenure as a reporter and later as Chief Reporter occurred during the happening times which witnessed the Mandal agitation, the assassination of Rajiv Gandhi, several rounds of elections and a series of bomb blasts in the capital, as I guided a great team of reporters to cover these major events. In 1996, I was promoted as a special correspondent and started covering major beats such as the ministries of defence, home affairs and later civil aviation, besides the Union Cabinet.
The highlights of my 35-year innings in PTI include the coverage of the Kargil Conflict in 1999 and two anti-insurgency army operations in Assam and other parts of the Northeast. Due to my experiences in the coverage of war and insurgency, I was invited by the UNESCO to speak on the issue at a global media conference in Windhoek (Namibia) in 2000. I addressed conferences and seminars on the same issues organized by the International Institute for Strategic Studies (Asia) in Singapore and International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) in Colombo, Dhaka and New Delhi. Earlier, I have worked on deputation at the premier security think-tank, Institute for Defence Studies and Analyses, as a Research Officer specializing on security issues and specifically the economy of Pakistan in late 80s and early 90s. I am still associated with the premier journal ‘Indian Defence Review’ on its editorial board.
During my stint in PTI, I have written extensively on a variety of national and global events relating to civil and defence aviation. These included coverage of airshows in Farnborough, Moscow, Berlin and Bangalore, Annual Summits of the International Air Transport Association (IATA) and their global media briefings regularly for several years.
Besides these areas, my reportage included several general elections, such as those in Amethi (Sonia Gandhi), Fatehpur (V P Singh), apart from those in Allahabad, Faizabad and other places. I covered the Ayodhya issue (including Shilanyas and demolition) and natural calamities like earthquake in Uttarkashi, super cyclone in Orissa and Tsunami in Andaman and Nicobar Islands. I have also been part of reporting contingents covering Presidents/Prime Ministers on their trips in India and abroad.
In the later years, I held senior positions in the news agency, including Associate Editor, National Editor and as the Executive Editor of PTI. I have held both permanent Lok Sabha and PIB accreditation for over two decades. I was also a member of the Lok Sabha Press Accreditation Committee for three terms. (EOM)
