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Winners announced at IIMCAA Awards, Soumya Pillai bags ‘Journalist of the Year’ Prize
According to a press release, Connections Meets will also be organised at the chapter level in several cities in India and overseas over the next 2 to 3 months.
The Indian Institute of Mass Communication Alumni Association on Tuesday announced the winners of the 10th IIMCAA Awards during the inaugural event of its 14th annual Connections Meet held in Delhi.
The meet was attended by various dignitaries, including IIMCAA President Sushil Singh, the body's General Secretary Atul Gupta, its former Presidents Kalyan Ranjan, Simrat Gulati, Prasad Sanyal, and Souvenir Editor Santosh Oraon, who jointly released a souvenir book.
The honours celebrated outstanding achievements across journalism, advertising, public relations and public service, bringing together distinguished alumni, media professionals and dignitaries from across India and abroad.
In the Jury Awards, the prestigious Journalist of the Year Award was won by Soumya Pillai. Other winners include Laxmi Devi Aere for Agriculture Reporter of the Year; Safeena Wani for Print Reporting; Medha Yadav for Broadcast Reporting; Mohammad Asad for Producer; Saurav Kumar Borah for Print Reporting in Indian Languages; Alpesh Arvind Karkare for Broadcast Reporting in Indian Languages; Tanzil Asif for Independent Journalist (Digital Video); Hasleen Kaur for Ad Person; and Panchanan Mishra for PR Person of the Year.
The Jury also presented Special Mention Awards to Gargy Satapathy, Nantha Kishore G K and Garima Singh. Awardees received cash prizes ranging from ₹10,000 to ₹1.5 lakh, along with trophies and certificates.
In the Committee Awards category, actor Chandan Roy and journalist Abhinav Pandey were honoured as Alumni of the Year. Lifetime Achievement Awards were presented to Milan Vohra, Lipika Sud, Pradeep Kumar Mallik, Dr Sangita Thakur and Mitali Mohanty Ghosh.
The Public Service Award recognised the contributions of Suresh Kumar Vashishth, IAS; Virendra Mishra, IPS; Kapil Sharma; Kumar Abhishek, CAPF; Prerna Prasad and Ankita Sahoo. Further recognitions included: Anand Kumar Dutta and Madhav Sharma for Connecting Alumni; the Maharashtra & Bihar Chapter for Connecting Chapter; and IIMC Vicharaks’ Samosa Party for Connecting Group of the Year.
Under the Pillars of IIMCAA category, awards were presented to Ramesh Muniyappa, Manoj Kumar, Prasad Sanyal, Arvind Kumar and Ezrela Dalidia Fanai (Posthumous).
MC Joshi was felicitated on completing 50 years since graduation, while 74 alumni received Silver Jubilee recognitions.
Former IIMC Director General KG Suresh; retired bureaucrat Amarendra Khatua, Amitabh Verma, Rajesh Malik; journalists Supriya Prasad, Mimansa Malik, Akhilesh Sharma, Shishir Sinha, Sanjay Mishra, Sunil Singh, SP Singh, Anuranjan Jha, Alok Kumar, Inderjit Rai, Vibhudatta Pradhan, Mona Parthasarathy, Nigmananda Prusty, Mihir Ranjan, Ramesh Chandra, PNB Zonal Manager Rajesh Kumar; corporate communicator Jyoti Kumar, Deepak Shankar, Anshuman Gunjan, Arijit Banerjee, Anand Bhushan, Harshendra Vardhan, and alumni from India and abroad attended the programme.
According to a press release, Connections Meets will also be organised at the chapter level in several cities in India and overseas over the next two to three months.
IIMCAA Awards 2026: List of Winners
Journalist of the Year – Soumya Pillai
Agriculture Reporter of the Year –Laxmi Devi Aere
Reporter of the Year (Publishing) – Safeena Wani
Reporter of the Year (Broadcast) – Medha Yadav
Producer of the Year (Broadcast) – Mohammad Asad
Indian Language Reporter of the Year (Publishing) - Saurav Kr. Borah
Indian Language Reporter of the Year (Broadcast) – Alpesh Arvind Karkare
Independent Reporter of the Year (Digital-Video) - Tanzil Asif
Ad Person of the Year – Hasleen Kaur
PR Person of the Year –Panchanan Misra
Jury Special Mention Awards
Reporter of the Year (Broadcast) – Garima Singh
Indian Language Reporter of the Year - Broadcast - Nantha Kishore
Indian Language Reporter of the Year - Publishing - Gargy Satapathy
Committee Awards
Lifetime Achievement Awards: Milan Vohra, Lipika Sud, Pradeep Kumar Mallik, Sangita Thakur, Mitali Mohanty Ghosh
Alumni of The Year Awards: Chandan Roy, Abhinav Pandey
Public Service: Suresh Kumar Vashishth, IAS, Virendra Mishra, IPS, Kapil Sharma, Kumar Abhishek, Prerna Prasad, Ankita Sahoo
Connecting Alumni of the Year: Anand Kumar Dutta, Madhav Sharma
Connecting Chapter of the Year: Maharashtra, Bihar
Connecting Group of the Year: IIMC Vicharaks’ Samosa Party
Pillars of IIMCAA: Ramesh Muniyappa, Manoj Kumar, Prasad Sanyal, Arvind Kumar, Ezrela Dalidia Fanai (Posthumous)
