JAYA SINGH M

As the Head of the Regional News Unit of All India Radio, Chennai, in the capacity as the Deputy Director (News), my responsibilities include ensuring the timely airing of live news bulletins with brevity, accuracy and relevance. They include five major news bulletins, each of ten minutes duration, in Tamil, from the Chennai Station and another bulletin from Tiruchirapalli Station from the state of Tamil Nadu, India. In addition, I ensure that every day, from 6 am to 11 pm, for every hour, a news capsule of two minutes duration are being broadcast in the FM Rainbow network of the public broadcaster, All India Radio, in the state of Tamil Nadu, India.

My major contribution during the time include the unhindered airing of news bulletins even during the second wave of the Covid-19 pandemic that was unprecedented in its gravity and intensity.

I organized and interviewed several medical experts on Covid-19 pandemic and the precautionary measures as well as the available medical treatment regimes. Later, I focused more on the effectiveness and the necessity of the Covid-19 vaccines, even while insisting on the precautionary measures in the special programmes like interviews and radio jingles.

Despite the fact that public transport has been stopped during the peak of the pandemic, I ensured that the news bulletins were carried unhindered by using the technological advances.

Similarly, during the natural calamities, like cyclones, especially during the North East Monsoon period, I stayed in the office to run 'day and night' news bulletins, due to the fact that, all the other channels of communication get disrupted in the areas falling under the vicinity of the cyclones, as electricity supply gets snapped there, but radio can reach the public any time, as the radio receivers can even be operated using battery cells and mobile phones.

I ensure that my news bulletins contain a judicial mix of stories including the aspects like developmental initiatives, politics, economy, international affairs, science and technology, sports, weather and human interest stories.

During this period, I regularly despatched news items relating to the unfolding events in the state of Tamil Nadu on Politics, development initiatives, Indian Space Research Organization's Satellite missions, Covid19 updates, Environmental Issues affecting the region and a host of other subjects.

I have covered the foreign visits by Honorable Prime Minister and the Vice President of India to the countries such as Japan (Bilateral Visit by Honorable Prime Minster), Turkey (G20 Submit at Antalya) and Iran (Bilateral Visit) and the visit by the Honorable Vice President of India to Thailand and Brunei.

Besides I have also covered the proceedings of the Parliament of India at New Delhi and the Legislative Assembly in Chennai, India, regularly. My voice dispatches for both the National News bulletins being originated from New Delhi and in Tamil in the News Bulletins of Chennai and Tiruchirappali radio stations got wider appreciation, especially my stories with regular updates on the Covid19 situation, election campaign and the satellite launches almost all the days in the period my voice dispatches where included in the News bulletin.

In the run up to the Parliament General Election-2019, I took up the assignment in the Election Commission of India and helped in organizing press conferences, International and National Seminars and symposia on ethical electoral practices and inclusive elections. I also played an instrumental role in bringing out a Handbook on the Lok Sabha elections.

During this period, I prepared news bulletins, process involving selection of news, conversion of the original news sources into news item according to the style of the public broadcaster, insertion of relevant audio bytes in the relevant place in the news bulletin, and doing the managerial tak. I also filed news stories to the National News that are being originated from New Delhi.

During this period, I have been serving the Islands, mostly as the Correspondent filing stories to the local radio station, as well as to the National News of the Public Broadcaster. During the period, the stories on the Islands in the national news were more, as compared to the previous years due to my constant updates.

Served both as the News Editor on the desk and also as the Correspondent on the field. Did a lot of live programmes like hot-switching, phone-in’s, coverage in the state and VVIP visits abroad. Presented Press review for DD News, New Delhi and filed many voice capsules as well.

During the period, I covered the Honourable Prime Minister of India's bilateral visit to South Korea, and his programmes at the Nuclear Security Summit.

Served as the bridge between the Government and the public through the media. I wrote plenty of features, prepared and issued press releases, organized press conferences, updated the PIB Chennai website, conducted media tours, organized media workshops.

Disseminated information on nation building through interpersonal, traditional, public speaking and other means of communication and filed public opinion from Coimbatore, Erode and the Nilgiris Districts of Tamil Nadu state.

Served as a member of the Editorial Board of the journal Sainik Samachar, and also single-handedly brought out its Tamil Edition. Did reporting as well.

Took up the reporting assignment.

I copy-edited the scientific journal called "Phytochemistry" on behalf of the Pergamon Press, London, whose copy editing job has been done in Macmillan India Limited, Bangalore. I meticulously brought out the Journal every month by strictly following the style book without compromising on even such minute features like spacing between the characters and the punctuation marks.