For the first time in its history of 42 years of eventful existence in India, national broadcaster Doordarshan gave awards to programmes produced entirely by its regular in-house team of professionals cutting across all DD kendras termed as ‘In-House Production’. The awards were given at a ceremony entitled ‘Geetanjali’ which was held at Siri Fort, New Delhi, on December 19, by Krishan Kant, vice-president of India, in the presence of I & B minister Sushma Swaraj, minister of state for I & B Ramesh Baas and the chairman of Prasar Bharati Prof. VR Rao. A total of 32 awards were given in various categories. While DD Kendra, Thiruvananthapuram, topped the list with five awards, the Mumbai Kendra received three, which include the major "Best Kendras" for the year 2001, the best TV show and the best youth programme.

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Selfless grand dame

Aimed at recognising, encouraging and promoting in-house professional excellence as well as programmes of thematic, aesthetic and technical excellence, the DD awards were given in 32 categories which include programming, technical and allied services of Doordarshan, including the best LPT(low power transmission), best HPT(high power transmission) and the best studio. While most DD Kendras had their share of glory in one or the other way, it was a proud moment for the Mumbai Kendra and its director Mukesh Sharma as besides two awards in the programming category, Mumbai Kendra shared the major DD award with Doordarshan Kendra, Delhi, as the "Best Kendra" for the year 2001. Says Sharma, "The best Kendra award was given on the basis of performance in terms of revenue, TRPs, resource generation, management, human resource development and overall quality of work. It was indeed a proud moment for all of us here to bag this major award."

According to Sharma, the DD awards are now going to be a regular yearly event aimed as they are to encourage, recognise and promote excellence in various fields of television programming. And having won the best Kendra award, Sharma says the challenge before him to keep and maintain the performance of Mumbai Kendra in all respects so as to win the best Kendra award solo next year. "The aim is to improve on our performance over the last year and achieve excellence," he adds. Incidentally, the event of the award ceremony was produced by Mumbai Kendra and was telecast on Doordarshan’s national network the following day. Marketed in-house the four-hour event telecast, according to Sharma, earned Doordarshan a whopping amount of 50 lakhs.

—ALC