Vartika Nanda


Vartika Nanda is an Indian prison reformer and media educator. She is the founder of Tinka Tinka, a movement on prison reforms. She has received the Stree Shakti Puraskar award from the President of India, Pranab Mujkherjee, the highest civilian honour for women in India on women empowerment. Her work on prison reforms have been given a special place in the Limce Book of Records twice.
Vartika Nanda is the Head of the Department for Journalism in Lady Shri Ram College in Delhi University. Formerly, she was also the first Executive Producer of Lok Sabha TV. She began her career as a reporter in Zee India. Later on, she became the head of crime beat in NDTV. She was the first woman crime reporter on electronic media in India.

Professional experience

With a doctorate in Journalism on the issues of coverage of rape cases by Indian print media, she is currently the head of the Department of Journalism in Lady Shri Ram College of Delhi University. She has taught TV journalism at Indian Institute of Mass Communication, New Delhi as Associate Professor for three years in the past. She has held various journalistic assignments in electronic media including Zee News, NDTV and Lok Sabha TV. Vartika was the First Executive Producer of Lok Sabha TV and played an instrumental role in the conception, setting up and running of the channel.
She was conferred the Stri Shakti Puraskar, 2013 by the then Hon'ble President of India, Pranab Mukherjee in Rashtrapati Bhawan in 2014. This award was given in recognition for her contribution in creating awareness on women's issues through media and literature.

Work as researcher and educator

Her research areas include prisons, relationship between police, crime and the persecution of victims, gender reporting and portrayal of women in media. She also specializes in imparting training on crisis communication. In 2017 her book Television aur Crime Reporting, published by Rajkamal Prakashan, was given the Bhartendu Harish Chandra Award by the Information & Broadcasting Ministry in 2007. Testimony by Hon'ble Harivansh:

Work as prison reformer

Vartika Nanda is a crusader on prison reforms and the first Indian to have started a continuous project solely on prison reforms. She is the founder of Tinka Tinka - a unique series to bring change in the lives of the jail inmates. Vartika Nanda is credited to have curated and created the concept of awards for inmates and prison staff for the first time in India. Two awards exclusively for inmates - Tinka Tinka India Awards and Tinka Tinka Bandini Awards have been instituted by her as part of the effort. Her name has been included in the Limca Book of Records twice for her unique work on prison reforms. Hindustan Times on Prison Reforms: Indian Express:
2018: Tinka India Awards: Indian Express:

Advisor or member

She is the editor of Gaon ki Selfie, a periodical dedicated to developmental communication, along with well known bureaucrat Rashmi Singh. She is also the honorary editor of "Media Dunia", a section dedicated to news media industry views and analysis, run by Web Dunia. Web Dunia has the distinction of being the first Hindi web portal in the world.
Her association with television news started at the age of twelve as the youngest television anchor in Asia. Her association with print journalism began with her engagement as Associate Editor with a quarterly journal on media, Communication Today. She continues to oversee the journal. As a regular columnist, she contributed for over two years to The Pioneer and Hindi Outlook till 2007.

Awards