Pratima Puri (died 29 July 2007) was an Indian journalist best known for being

Doordarshan Doordarshan (abbreviated as DD; Hindi: , ) is an Indian public service broadcaster founded by the Government of India, owned by the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting and one of Prasar Bharati's two divisions. One of India's largest bro ...

’s first newsreader.

Early life

She was born as Vidya Rawat to a

Gorkha The Gurkhas or Gorkhas (), with endonym Gorkhali ), are soldiers native to the Indian Subcontinent, chiefly residing within Nepal and some parts of Northeast India. The Gurkha units are composed of Nepalis and Indian Gorkhas and are recruit ...

family at Laal Paani in

Shimla Shimla (; ; also known as Simla, List of renamed Indian cities and states#Himachal Pradesh, the official name until 1972) is the capital and the largest city of the States and union territories of India, northern Indian state of Himachal Prade ...

, the capital city of

Himachal Pradesh Himachal Pradesh (; ; "Snow-laden Mountain Province") is a state in the northern part of India. Situated in the Western Himalayas, it is one of the thirteen mountain states and is characterized by an extreme landscape featuring several peaks ...

. Puri graduated from

Delhi University Delhi University (DU), formally the University of Delhi, is a collegiate central university located in New Delhi, India. It was founded in 1922 by an Act of the Central Legislative Assembly and is recognized as an Institute of Eminence (IoE) ...

Indraprastha College for Women Indraprastha College for Women, also known as Indraprastha College or IP College ( hi, इंद्रप्रस्थ महिला महाविद्यालय), is the oldest women's college in Delhi. Established in 1924, it is a con ...

Career

Pratima started her media career at the

All India Radio All or ALL may refer to: Language * All, an indefinite pronoun in English * All, one of the English determiners * Allar language (ISO 639-3 code) * Allative case (abbreviated ALL) Music * All (band), an American punk rock band * ''All'' (All ...

(AIR) station in her hometown. When All India Radio had its first telecast on September 15, 1959, Pratima was shifted to

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 became an anchor when DD started its first news bulletin in 1965. She interviewed prominent figures like

Yuri Gagarin Yuri Alekseyevich Gagarin; Gagarin's first name is sometimes transliterated as ''Yuriy'', ''Youri'', or ''Yury''. (9 March 1934 – 27 March 1968) was a Soviet pilot and cosmonaut who became the first human to journey into outer space. Tr ...

(the first man to travel into space), and various actors and politicians. After

Salma Sultan Salma Sultan (born 16 March 1944) is an Indian television journalist and director. Having worked as a news anchor in Doordarshan from 1967 till 1997, she later went into directing television shows. Sultan had initiated a trend-wearing a signatur ...

was chosen to replace her, Pratima Puri started training aspiring anchors in Doordarshan.

Personal life

Pratima Puri died in 2007.

References

{{Authority control Doordarshan Indian television presenters 2007 deaths Year of birth missing Indian Gorkhas