Niharika Acharya is joining Semafor, Justin Smith and Ben Smith's new media startup, to create their global events vertical. She most recently has been executive director of events at The Hill, where she led the event content team in ideation, strategy setting and speaker recruitment. In taking events from concept to execution, she works closely with The Hill's newsroom to develop programs that examine the impact of policies and regulations on a national and international scale. Previously, as a senior producer with Atlantic LIVE, the events division of The Atlantic, her work focused on politics and policy events. She played a leading role in the conceptualization and execution of events during the 2016 Republican and Democratic conventions. Prior to that as the editorial director of National Journal LIVE, she led content creation and speaker recruitment for events and managed the content team. Prior to joining the National Journal, she was a freelance producer at Fox TV. Niharika worked at Bloomberg TV from 2010 to 2014, she was the Producer of Bloomberg Television's flagship political show, ''Political Capital with Al Hunt'', a political show with an economic edge. The show features discussions on national and international news, along with a weekly wrap-up and interviews with key political figures. Before joining

Bloomberg Television Bloomberg Television (on-air as Bloomberg) is an American-based pay television network focusing on business and capital market programming, owned by Bloomberg L.P. It is distributed globally, reaching over 310 million homes worldwide. It is head ...

Niharika Acharya was a

television news News broadcasting is the medium of broadcasting various news events and other information via television, radio, or the internet in the field of broadcast journalism. The content is usually either produced locally in a radio studio or televis ...

reporter A journalist is an individual that collects/gathers information in form of text, audio, or pictures, processes them into a news-worthy form, and disseminates it to the public. The act or process mainly done by the journalist is called journalism ...

and

anchor An anchor is a device, normally made of metal , used to secure a vessel to the bed of a body of water to prevent the craft from drifting due to wind or current. The word derives from Latin ''ancora'', which itself comes from the Greek ἄγ ...

for

Voice of America Voice of America (VOA or VoA) is the state-owned news network and international radio broadcaster of the United States of America. It is the largest and oldest U.S.-funded international broadcaster. VOA produces digital, TV, and radio content ...

. As a reporter/editor Niharika covered 2004 and 2008 U.S Presidential Elections, UN General Assembly sessions, 9/11 Anniversaries and US-India Relations (including the U.S-India Nuclear Deal. She was the

Managing Editor A managing editor (ME) is a senior member of a publication's management team. Typically, the managing editor reports directly to the editor-in-chief and oversees all aspects of the publication. United States In the United States, a managing edito ...

's India Service. The VOA India service is now defunct. Her noteworthy interviews include Former US President

Bill Clinton William Jefferson Clinton ( né Blythe III; born August 19, 1946) is an American politician who served as the 42nd president of the United States from 1993 to 2001. He previously served as governor of Arkansas from 1979 to 1981 and agai ...

, Former Turkmenistani Prime Minister Soha heena Saqib Ashraf Ghani, Indian and Tajikistani foreign ministers, Louisiana Governor

Bobby Jindal Piyush "Bobby" Jindal (born June 10, 1971) is an American politician who served as the 55th Governor of Louisiana from 2008 to 2016. The only living former Louisiana governor, Jindal also served as a member of the U.S. House of Representatives a ...

, State Dept officials, NASA Astronauts:

Neil Armstrong Neil Alden Armstrong (August 5, 1930 – August 25, 2012) was an American astronaut and aeronautical engineer who became the first person to walk on the Moon in 1969. He was also a naval aviator, test pilot, and university professor. ...

Suni Williams Sunita Lyn Williams (born September 19, 1965) is an American astronaut and United States Navy officer who formerly held the records for most spacewalks by a woman (seven) and most spacewalk time for a woman (50 hours, 40 minutes). Williams wa ...

, members of American Congress, Indian Politicians and Hollywood-Bollywood artists.

Early life

Niharika Acharya was born in the small hamlet of

Sarahan Sarahan is a small town in Himachal Pradesh of India. It is the site of the Bhimakali Temple, originally known as Bhimadevi Temple (Bhīmā Kālī), dedicated to the mother goddess Bhimakali, presiding deity of the rulers of the former Bus ...

in northern India. She earned a Master of Arts in the

Mass Communication Mass communication is the process of imparting and exchanging information through mass media to large segments of the population. It is usually understood for relating to various forms of media, as its technologies are used for the dissemination o ...

research centre at

Jamia Milia Islamia Jamia Millia Islamia () is a central university located in New Delhi, India. Originally established at Aligarh, United Provinces (present-day Uttar Pradesh, India) during the British Raj in 1920, it moved to its current location in Okhla in ...

university in

New Delhi New Delhi (, , ''Naī Dillī'') is the capital of India and a part of the National Capital Territory of Delhi (NCT). New Delhi is the seat of all three branches of the government of India, hosting the Rashtrapati Bhavan, Parliament House ...

. She graduated at the top of her class in political science from

Lady Shri Ram College for Women Lady Shri Ram College for Women (LSR) is a constituent women's college, affiliated with the University of Delhi, and has a legacy in women's education. History Established in 1956 in New Delhi by the late Lala Shri Ram in memory of his wife ...

in New Delhi. She completed her schooling from a New Delhi-based school

Air Force Golden Jubilee Institute Air Force Golden Jubilee Institute, located at Subroto Park, Delhi Cantonment, India, is a school run by the Indian Air Force Educational and Cultural Society. It was founded in 1985. The school has an auditorium named as Rabindralaya. There are ...

Career

Niharika worked with Indian TV news channel

NDTV New Delhi Television Ltd is an Indian news media company focusing on broadcast and digital news publication. The company is considered to be a legacy brand that pioneered independent news broadcasting in India, and is credited for launching t ...

as reporter and anchor for seven years. Later she left for the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

and joined Voice of America Hindi TV and Radio service in 2003. She is still working with VoA as correspondent and anchor. As part of VoA collaboration with Aaj Tak TV news channel, she also anchors 'Duniya' (The World) program 'LIVE' on Aaj Tak every Sunday evening. Niharika also contribute to VOA Hindi radio as fill-in host for weekly call-in shows 'Hello India' and 'Hello America' and her television reports are also aired on radio as well. Niharika has lived and travelled across India, and now travels across the United States in search of stories.

Notable reporting

Niharika Acharya has covered President Bush's inauguration for his second term, the US November 2004 presidential elections,

9/11 The September 11 attacks, commonly known as 9/11, were four coordinated suicide terrorist attacks carried out by al-Qaeda against the United States on Tuesday, September 11, 2001. That morning, nineteen terrorists hijacked four commercial ...

anniversaries, Indian prime minister

Manmohan Singh Manmohan Singh (; born 26 September 1932) is an Indian politician, economist and statesman who served as the 13th prime minister of India from 2004 to 2014. He is also the third longest-serving prime minister after Jawaharlal Nehru and Indir ...

's meeting with President

George W. Bush George Walker Bush (born July 6, 1946) is an American politician who served as the 43rd president of the United States from 2001 to 2009. A member of the Republican Party, Bush family, and son of the 41st president George H. W. Bush, he ...

at the United Nations General Assembly session, and former Prime Minister

Atal Bihari Vajpayee Atal Bihari Vajpayee (; 25 December 1924 – 16 August 2018) was an Indian politician who served three terms as the 10th prime minister of India, first for a term of 13 days in 1996, then for a period of 13 months fr ...

's official visit to U.S. She also travelled to

Pakistan Pakistan ( ur, ), officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan ( ur, , label=none), is a country in South Asia. It is the world's List of countries and dependencies by population, fifth-most populous country, with a population of almost 24 ...

to cover the India-Pakistan peace dialogue summit meet at

Islamabad Islamabad (; ur, , ) is the capital city of Pakistan. It is the country's ninth-most populous city, with a population of over 1.2 million people, and is federally administered by the Pakistani government as part of the Islamabad Capital T ...

between the leaders of the two countries. She also covered the relief efforts mounted by American communities for 26 December 2004

Tsunami A tsunami ( ; from ja, 津波, lit=harbour wave, ) is a series of waves in a water body caused by the displacement of a large volume of water, generally in an ocean or a large lake. Earthquakes, volcanic eruptions and other underwater explo ...

disaster victims and their families.

Awards

Niharika has received VoA's superior accomplishment award.

References

*http://www.voanews.com/hindi/bio_acharya.cfm *http://www.presidentialclassroom.org/upload/news/Current_News/wk5-mon-web.pdf

External links

Niharika Acharya's interview with Richard A. Boucher, Assistant Secretary for south and central Asian affairs.Some interesting reporting by Niharika Acharya.
{{DEFAULTSORT:Acharya, Niharika American television news anchors American radio journalists Jamia Millia Islamia alumni Year of birth missing (living people) Living people Lady Shri Ram College alumni Indian emigrants to the United States American writers of Indian descent American women television journalists American women radio journalists 21st-century American women