The ACJ Alumni Association – the association of the alumni of the Asian College of Journalism, Chennai – was inaugurated in Chennai on Saturday.
At its inaugural meeting held at the MS Subbulakshmi Auditorium in the ACJ campus, in Taramani, Chennai, Harsha Subramaniam was elected president, and Vrinda Malik Sharma the vice-president.
In addition, Renjtih Ramanujam was appointed as secretary, Aditya Balaji as treasurer, Revati Krishna and Anirudh Madhav as joint secretaries, and Manasa R and Nitin Narain as committee members.
Dr Nalini Rajan, dean, ACJ, and KN Arun, senior faculty at ACJ, were nominated as ex officio members of the committee.
Sashi Kumar, chairman, Media Development Foundation (MDF) and Asian College of Journalism, in his capacity as the patron of the association, nominated Aminul Islam of Dhaka, Bangladesh, as member of the committee to represent South Asian Foundation (SAF) scholars.
The objectives of the ACJ Alumni Association include enabling networking among the alumni for academic and professional advancement, support the ACJ in academics, infrastructure and industry partnerships, and, assist ACJ students through grants, scholarship and placement opportunities.
Kumar said that the formation of the association could be mutually beneficial to both the ACJ and its alumni. Describing the alumni as goodwill ambassadors of the ACJ, he recalled how one of the alumni had been instrumental in the launching of the ACJ’s Business and Financial Journalism programme in association with Bloomberg seven years ago.
N Ram, director, The Hindu Group of publications, and Trustee of the MDF which administers the ACJ, highlighted the important role that the alumni association could play at the time when media and freedom of expression had come under increasing pressure across the globe. India, in particular, has faced multiple challenges with the nation slipping down in the global media freedom index.