Barkha Dutt is an Indian television journalist and columnist Born 18 December 1971 (age 40). She is currently the group editor with NDTV.
Dutt gained prominence for her reportage of the Kargil War. She has won many national and international awards, including the Padma Shri, India s fourth highest civilian honour. She writes a column for the Hindustan Times called "Third Eye". In 2010 she was one of the journalists taped in the 2G lobbying Radia tapes controversy.

Early life

Barkha Dutt was born in New Delhi to S. P. Dutt, an official in Air India and Prabha Dutt who was a well-known journalist with the Hindustan Times. Barkha credits her journalism skills to her mother, Prabha, a pioneer among women journalists in India. Prabha Dutt died in 1984 due to a brain haemorrhage. Barkha s younger sister, Bahar Dutt, is also a television journalist working for CNN IBN.

Career

Barkha graduated from St. Stephen s College, Delhi with a degree in English literature. She received a Master s in Mass Communications from Jamia Millia Islamia Mass Communication Research Center, New Delhi. She started her journalism career with NDTV and later rose to head the English news wing of the organization. She also obtained a master s degree in journalism from Columbia University s Graduate School of Journalism, New York assisted by an Inlaks Shivdasani Foundation scholarship. Her reporting of the Kargil conflict in 1999, including an interview with Captain Vikram Batra, brought her to prominence in India.She has since covered conflicts in Kashmir, Pakistan, Afghanistan and Iraq.

Awards and accolades

In 2008, the Indian government awarded Dutt the Padma Shri, a civilian honor, for her coverage of the 2004 Tsunami  Barkha also received the Commonwealth Broadcasting Association award for Journalist of the Year, 2007. Her Sunday talk show has won the most awards out of any show on Indian television, winning the Indian Television Academy award for Best Talk Show five years in a row.In 2008, Dutt received the Indian News Broadcasting Award for the Most Intelligent News Show Host. She has twice been named on the list of 100 "Global Leaders of Tomorrow" compiled by the World Economic Forum (2001, 2008). She has also received Society Magazine Young Achievers Award. In 2010 she was appointed as a member of India s National Integration Council. She was also Asia Society Fellow in 2006 and serves on the International Advisory Council of the Asia Society.

Portrayal in popular culture

Barkha Dutt has been portrayed in the film Lakshya, directed by Farhan Akhtar.She was the model for the principal protagonist in the The Peddler of Soaps, a political novel by writer-activist Anand Kurian. In recent times, the role played by Rani Mukherjee in the film No One Killed Jessica is loosely based on her.

Controversies
Radia tapes controversy
Main article: Radia tapes controversy
In November 2010, OPEN magazine carried a story which reported transcripts of some of the telephone conversations of Nira Radia with senior journalists, politicians, and corporate houses, many of whom have denied the allegations. The Central Bureau of Investigation has announced that they have 5,851 recordings of phone conversations by Radia, some of which outline Radia s attempts to broker deals in relation to the 2G spectrum sale.In one of the tapes Barkha Dutt assures Radia of getting Ghulam Nabi Azad, Congress general secretary, to talk to Karunanidhi to get the portfolios in the Union cabinet fixed. Dutt denied acting on any promise to pass on messages to the Congress. In a subsequent tape, Nira Radia is heard saying ‘Barkha has got Congress(political party) to issue a statement’.Dutt denies the allegations