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Nalin Mehta

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Nalin Mehta
Academic background
EducationUniversity of East Anglia (MA)
La Trobe University (PhD)
Academic work
DisciplineSocial science
Journalism
Media studies
History
Sub-disciplineSouth Asian history
InstitutionsShiv Nadar University
Indian Institute of Management Bangalore

Professor Nalin Mehta is an Indian political scientist, journalist, and writer. His latest book, The New BJP: Modi and the Making of the World's Largest Political Party, has been hailed as a "seminal", non-partisan revisionist account of the rise of the BJP in India.[1]

Some of the world's leading scholars on India have called it a "classic",[2] praising it as an "indispensable" and "masterful account" of the rise of the BJP. Its findings ignited a major global debate on Indian politics and caste[3]

Mehta is currently Dean, School of Modern Media, UPES [upes]; Advisor, Global University Systems and Non-Resident Senior Fellow, Institute of South Asian Studies, National University of Singapore [3]. He has previously been executive editor of The Times of India Online,[4] consulting editor of The Times of India;[5][6] and managing editor, India Today (English TV news channel). He has also been associate professor at Shiv Nadar University;[7] founding editor of the international journal South Asian History and Culture.[8] and founding co-director of the Times LitFest Delhi[9] He was an adjunct professor at the Indian Institute of Management Bangalore and held senior positions with the Global Fund and UNAIDS.[10]

Early life and education

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Mehta studied at the Scindia School, where he finished as school captain and editor of the Scindia School Review.[11] A Commonwealth-DFID scholar, he earned a Master of Arts in international relations from the University of East Anglia and a PhD in political science from La Trobe University in Melbourne.[12]

Career

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Star TV CEO Uday Shankar has called Mehta "probably the best media academic in India"[13] and the media guru Robin Jeffrey has described his work as "remarkable for being both a distinguished academic and an experienced journalist".[14] Mehta's latest book Behind a Billion Screens: What Television Tells Us About Modern India, long-listed for Business Book of the Year by Tata Literary Live 2015[15] and was a national non-fiction bestseller.[16][17]

Mehta's first book India on Television, widely acclaimed as a seminal, "impeccably researched"[18] and "authoritative scholarly study" of the politics and business of television in India,[19] was awarded the Asian Publishing Convention Award for Best Book in 2009.[20]

His social history of Indian sport, Olympics: The India Story co-authored with historian Boria Majumdar, was welcomed as a "pioneering, long-awaited"[21] work of history in the press and as a "triumph of Olympian proportions".[22] India's most well-known sociologist Ashis Nandy called it " the first comprehensive, scholarly and yet lively account of India's experiences with the Olympics".[23]

Mehta and Majumdar joined again to write Sellotape Legacy, a detailed account of the politics, economics, and disaster of the Delhi Commonwealth Games in 2010. Former Indian sports minister Mani Shankar Aiyar called it a "blazing expose" and a "thorough, well-researched, sober, and absorbingly well-written indictment of Everything You Wanted to Know about CWG [Commonwealth Games] but were Afraid to Ask."[24]

Mehta's other major work includes Gujarat Beyond Gandhi, a jointly edited anthology of critical essays that looked at 60 years of politics and social change in Gujarat.[25]

Mehta has been Managing Editor of India Today's English news channel (2013–14),[26] Deputy News Editor and prime-time anchor with Times Now.[27] and a political correspondent and anchor with NDTV.[28] For NDTV, he covered the 2002 Gujarat violence[29] and subsequent state assembly elections,[30] the 2001 Gujarat earthquake, the assassination of the royal family in Kathmandu and several Indian state elections including Chhattisgarh and Punjab.[31]

Alongside leadership positions in the media industry and international development agencies, Mehta has held several visiting appointments at universities and institutions in Australia, Switzerland, Singapore, and India. These include National University of Singapore, Australian National University, Canberra, La Trobe University, Melbourne, and the International Olympic Museum in Lausanne, Switzerland.[32]

Awards and recognition

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  • Asian Publishing Award for Best Book on Asian Media/Society for India on Television, 2009.[33]
  • Government of Australia Alumni Excellence Award for Media and Entertainment, 2010.[34]
  • Long-listed for Tata Literary Live Best Business Book of the Year, 2015, for Behind a Billion Screens: What Television Tells Us About Modern India[35]

Books

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  • Dreams of a Billion: India and the Olympic Games, (HarperCollins, 2020)the most comprehensive account of India’s Olympic journey."[36]
  • Behind a Billion Screens: What Television Tells Us About Modern India, (HarperCollins, 2015), Longlisted for Business Book of the Year by Tata Literary Live, national non-fiction bestseller"[37]
  • India on Television: How Satellite TV Has Changed the Way We Think and Act (HarperCollins, 2008). Winner of Asian Publishing Award 2009 for Best Book[38]
  • Sellotape Legacy: Delhi and the Commonwealth Games 2010, with Boria Majumdar (Harper Collins, 2010).[39]
  • Olympics: The India Story, with Boria Majumdar (Harper Collins, 2008, 2012), republished as India and the Olympics (Routledge, 2009)[40]
  • Television in India: Satellites, Politics and Cultural Change (Editor. Routledge, 2008, 2009)[41]
  • Gujarat Beyond Gandhi: Politics, Conflict and Society, with Mona G. Mehta (Editor. Routledge, 2010, 2011).[42]
  • The Changing Face of Cricket: From Imperial to Global Game, with Dominic Malcolm & Jon Gemmell (Editor. Routledge, 2010).[43]
  • The New BJP: Modi and the Making of the World's Largest Political Party (Westland Books, 2022) [4]

References

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  1. ^ The Hindu Business Line (19 January 2022). "Power Play: An ambitious treatise on the BJP". Business Line. Chennai. Retrieved 19 January 2022. {{cite web}}: |last1= has generic name (help)
  2. ^ Primepost (13 April 2022). "'The New BJP' helps understand India". primepost.in. Primepost. Retrieved 13 April 2022.
  3. ^ "Nalin Mehta Writes: 5 Reasons Christophe Jaffrelot and Ashoka University Data on BJP, Caste Are Wrong". news18.com. news18. 24 January 2022. Retrieved 24 January 2022.
  4. ^ Exchange4medianewsservice. "The Times of India Promotes Dr Nalin Mehta As Executive Editor- Online". Exchange4media. Exchange4media. Retrieved 17 August 2018.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
  5. ^ "Nalin Mehta joins TOI Delhi as consulting editor". Indian Television Dot Com. 11 August 2014. Retrieved 12 March 2021.
  6. ^ "Nalin Mehta Blog". The Times of India. Retrieved 12 March 2021.
  7. ^ Shiv Nadar University, School of Humanities and Social Sciences Staff Pages, 2016 Shiv Nadar University
  8. ^ Routledge South Asian History and Culture Series
  9. ^ "Delhi Literature Festival Director – The Times of India". The Times of India. Retrieved 12 March 2021.
  10. ^ Nalin Mehta's official website
  11. ^ Nalin Mehta, "The Computer Man", "Qila Quotes: the Scindia School Quarterly", July 2009, p.9
  12. ^ Australia India Institute, University of Melbourne, Argumentative Indian conference: speaker profile, [1], 2012
  13. ^ Faculty in spotlight: profile on Nalin Mehta's Behind a Billion Screens published by Shiv Nadar University [2]
  14. ^ Quoted on back jacket of Behind a Billion Screens
  15. ^ Tata Literary Live
  16. ^ "Shiv Nadar University: Engineering, Natural Sciences, Humanities & Management Programs". snu.edu.in. Retrieved 12 March 2021.
  17. ^ Joseph, Manu (13 May 2015). "Television That Few Want to Watch (Published 2015)". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 12 March 2021.
  18. ^ Amulya Gopalakrishnan, "Catch The Waves", "The Indian Express", 13 July 2008
  19. ^ Financial Express, 7 Sep. 2008
  20. ^ IANS, "Marketing Campaign for 'The White Tiger' Wins Asian Prize, 17 July 2009
  21. ^ K. Arumugam, "Olympics: The India Story", "The Hindustan Times", 4 August 2008
  22. ^ Gulu Ezekiel in New Indian Express, 10 Aug. 2008
  23. ^ Ashis Nandy, quoted on the back cover of Olympics: The India Story. New Delhi, HarperCollins, 2012, 3rd edition
  24. ^ Mani Shankar Aiyar, "A Pratfall, Mr Kalmadi?", "Outlook", 4 October 2010
  25. ^ V. Venkatesan, "Enigma of Gujarat", "Frontline", 5–18 Nov 2011
  26. ^ SNU Faculty in Spotlight, 2015
  27. ^ Routledge, 2013 Author profile in Routledge books
  28. ^ Ajitha GS, "Small wonder", "Time Out", July 2012
  29. ^ Amita Malik, "Mauling the Media", "The Tribune", 8 March 2002
  30. ^ Nalin Mehta, "Modi and the Camera: The Politics of Television in the 2002 Gujarat Riots, "South Asia: Journal of South Asian Studies", Dec. 2006, see footnotes on pages 405,408,411,413
  31. ^ Amita Malik, "On the Election Trail", The Tribune, 15 February 2002
  32. ^ Shiv Nadar University
  33. ^ IANS, "The White Tiger Campaign win the Asian multimedia publishing awards 2009", 20 July 2009
  34. ^ Government of Australia press release "Inaugural Australian Alumni Excellence Awards Presented", 9 October 2010
  35. ^ Tata Literary Live, 2015
  36. ^ HarperCollins India
  37. ^ Shiv Nadar University, 2015
  38. ^ "The White Tiger nominated for Asian Publishing Awards". 15 July 2009.
  39. ^ Outlook
  40. ^ Outlook
  41. ^ Routledge
  42. ^ Routledge
  43. ^ Routledge
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