Founder of Central Gondwana Net Swara (CGNet Swara) community radio service run from the State capital, Shubhranshu Choudhary (in pic) has made city proud once again by getting place in the list of ‘100 global thinkers’ by leading American Foreign Policy (FP) magazine.
Notably, Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) president Amit Shah have also been named in the list (as top decision makers). listed among the Chroniclers or ‘the masters of storytelling’, is Shubhranshu Choudhary, founder of CGNet “for giving rural Indians a megaphone”.
Choudhary, who left his job as a BBC producer in 2010 to launch the mobile news service CGNet Swara “beat out leaker Edward Snowden for the Google Digital Activism Award”, the magazine noted. “Journalism needs to become everybody’s business,” Choudhary was quoted as saying when receiving the award.
Choudhary while talking to The Pioneer after the award function at Washington DC on Monday night said, “These awards are good as they give us visibility to get attention of our urban supporters who are an equally important part of the project where we are trying to build connectivity between rural and urban activists.”
Choudhary further said, “These international honours are always good to give attention to the remotest parts of India. India is something more between Delhi and Bangalore, and beyond Gurgaon.”
“We are concentrating in tribal areas because they are the poorest of the poor people - farthest from the mainstream - who have taken up guns and challenged the Government of India, challenged the democratic notion of governance,” Choudhary said.
The working of the service is pretty simple, he explains. A woman living in a remote village picks up a phone and calls a computer to either record a message or listen. At the other end, “We translate, crosscheck, verify and take it to a person who can solve the problem,” he said.
Asked about his future plans, Choudhary said, “More than expansion, we want to create a model of democratic and independent communication platform.” “Instead of making it very big, we want to make it as easy as possible, as cheap as possible,” and one which does not require outside support like a temple or a church funded by the people themselves, he said.