The Third Annual Function of the PD Tandon Foundation Trust was held at Jaipuria Institute of Management Auditorium on 18th February 2024 at 4.30 pm.
The programme started with floral tributes to Mr. PD Tandon and his son, late R.K. Tandon, who passed away in May 2023 by Chitra Malik, Wg Cdr (Retd) RN Mehrotra and VP Mehrotra. Renowned author and poet Chandra Shekhar Verma conducted the programme. He regaled the audience with his oratory skills and crisp couplets.
The programme started with a speech by our panellist Mr. Ratan Mani Lal, who paid tribute to the founder of the PD Tandon Foundation Trust, Late Mr. RK Tandon, who was his senior in journalism. After that Mrs Chitra Malik reminisced about her brother RK Tandon.
On this occasion, a new website about PD Tandon and PD Tandon Foundation was launched by Mrs. Shikha and Mr. Ashish Srivastava from M/S Omninet Technologies. PD Tandon Foundation Awards for Outstanding Journalism were given to Mr. Abhishek Misra of India Today TV for Electronic Media and Mr. Devanshu Mani Tiwari for Digital Media. They were awarded a trophy along with a cash reward of Rs. 21,000/- each. The award for Print Media was shared by Mr. Anupam Srivastava and Mr. Gaurav Saigal of Hindustan Times, who got a trophy along with a cash reward of Rs. 11,000/- each. Mr. Sharat Pradhan spoke about his earlier interactions with PD Tandon, during his stint at National Herald. Mr. Govind Pant Raju spoke about the ethics of journalism and how one should move ahead with unbiased reporting.
Continuing with the concept of ‘Student Journalists’ introduced in 2022, the Foundation had earlier organized a Writing Competition for the Mass Communication students of the city. The topic was “Impact of AI on Journalism” which was won by Khushi Gulati of Amity School of Communications. The second and the third prizes were given to – Abhinav Varma of Amity School of Communications and Mohini Singh Gautam of Modern Girls’ College.
This year, a new online competition, ‘कहानी लेखन प्रतियोगिता’ (Kahani Lekhan Pratiyogita) was also introduced. Renowned artiste Mr. Gopal Sinha judged the event. The topics for the story writing competition were ‘रिश्ते’ (Rishtey) and ‘उम्मीद’ (Ummeed). The First prize was won by Smt. Alka Pandey, while the second and third prizes were given to Smt. Sandhya Sinha and Smt. Pallavi Vinod, respectively. The prize winning story was narrated on stage by noted stage artiste Ms. Rupali Chandra.
Stationery and material for vocational training worth Rs. 21,000/- was also handed over to four specially abled children of Drishti Samajik Sansthan, a non-profit organization dedicated to free service of mentally and physically challenged children for over 28 years. The four specially challenged children were accompanied by Sansthan’s Director, Mr. Dhiresh Bahadur and Manager, Mr. Rohit Tripathi.
At the end, Chitra Malik gave the vote of thanks and invited all the guests for High Tea.
PD Tandon was a freedom fighter, eminent author and journalist, whose name appears on fifty two books in Hindi and English, of which some were translated into Urdu and Tamil also. During the Quit India Movement of 1942.