Jagdish Sarin - Service Chief

 Jagdish Sarin was born and educated in New Delhi, India where he worked at India’s national radio, AIR (All India Radio) as a student and continued to work part time at AIR as drama artist, program-host, script writer and news-reader while he received Honors in Hindi from Punjab University, M.A. in Hindi Literature from Aligarh University, and M.A. in English Literature from Delhi University. He also has a Law degree from the Delhi University. Jagdish wrote short stories and poetry as a student of literature, which were published in various Hindi magazines and books of poetry. He also acted in, and directed stage plays, and had the distinction of winning the first prize for both drama-direction and drama-acting for a single stage-play in a nationwide amateur theater competition.

After completing his studies, Jagdish moved from radio to TV and joined Doordarshan, India’s only TV channel at the time. A rising young newsreader, Jagdish became the first Hindi TV news correspondent and first Hindi TV news anchor of India. His coverage of the tripartite meeting between Tito, Nasser and Indira Gandhi brought him national recognition, and he won a “Distinguished Service” award at Doordarshan for his coverage of India’s national elections in February 1968.

Jagdish joined VOA Hindi in August 1968 as an International Radio Broadcaster. He covered Man’s first landing on the Moon in 1969, Indian Prime Minister Mrs. Gandhi’s visit to Washington just before the Bangladesh war in 1971, and Morarji Desai’ US visit in 1976 after he became the first non-congress party prime minister in independent India’s history. Jagdish was among the first to win the Excellence in Programming award when VOA established that recognition in 1985. He rose from the ranks in the Hindi service, becoming shift editor, Managing Editor, and finally Service Chief in 1989.

Jagdish has won, jointly with his Hindi colleagues, over 50 Excellence in Programming awards as well as David Burke professional Journalism award, the Cowen Award (twice), and the New York Radio Festival Award (twice). Jagdish still enjoys writing poetry, and has participated in a number of symposia. He even wrote a poem to frame the week-long special programming on VOA Hindi’s 50th anniversary last year.