NEW DELHI: It was certainly a night of nights, particularly for those who make news about others. For a change, news was being made about them, and another page in the history of Indian news television was being written.

The Convention Hall of Ashoka Hotel, the venue of the Third Indiantelevision.com News Television Awards, was filled with capacity. And as each name was called out to receive an award, the large ovation and whistling showed the representation of each news channel at the show.

Rajdeep Sardesai (CNN IBN) took home the best TV news anchor of the year (English) award while Deepak Chaurasia (Star News) won the best TV news reporter of the year (Hindi) prize. The award for the business news anchor of the year went to Udayan Mukherjee (CNBC TV18), while Punya Prasoon Bajpai (Zee News) was the best TV news presenter.

Some of the shows that won awards include NDTV 24x7’s The Buck Stops Here (Current Affairs Programme), The Big Fight (Public Debate Show of the Year) and We the People (News Talk Show); Headlines Today’s Ground Zero (Best Presented Popular News Show); CNN IBN’s Devil’s Advocate (News Talk Show); IBN7’s Zindagi Live (News Talk Show); CNBC Awaaz’s Tax Guru (Business Talk Show of the Year) and Tech Guru (Technology Based Show); and NDTV India’s Jai Jawan (Entertainment News Show).

Awards were presented in 26 categories to Hindi, Telugu and English news channels and it was clear from the ovation that the jury had chosen wisely. Incidentally, for the first time, a regional language – Telugu – had been chosen to receive the awards in different categories, apart from Hindi and English, particularly keeping in view the phenomenal growth in the number of Telugu news channels over the last two years.

The Telugu news channel TV 9 was also awarded the indiantelevision.com’s ‘Hall of Fame’ recognition.

Explaining the process of selection, Indiantelevision.com founder and Editor-in-Chief Anil Wanvari said that over 700 entries had been received and juries had sat in Hyderabad, Mumbai and New Delhi to finalise the awards. This year’s jury included senior persons from the news channels and peers were involved in the selection process. Ernst and Young tabulated the awards.

A galaxy of personalities presented the awards, including Dr Karan Singh, Uganda High Commissioner Nimisha Madhvani, former IPS officer Maxwell Pereira and former cricket personalities Surinder Khanna, Kirti Azad, and Atul Wasan.

The show was telecast live on P7 News.

The detailed list of awards is appended herewith:

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Stage set for 3rd News and Television Awards and Summit