Community Impact Award to a Local Newsroom:
India Currents
India Currents has been serving the Indian American community in Silicon Valley for the past 35 years. Our mission is to illuminate pivotal and timely narratives within the Bay Area diaspora and serve as an incubator for a new generation of diverse storytellers. We do this through dedicated community and beat reporting, as well as accountability reporting. In 2019 India Currents transitioned from a print magazine into a fully digital, nonprofit entity with a BIPOC-led, all-female, editorial team. Over the years India Currents has established a track record for journalistic excellence and won awards and recognitions from New America Media, the San Francisco Press Club, and the California Journalism Awards. In 2021 alone, our team produced 21 award-winning pieces. In 2022 and 2023 we won 15 awards each year. In the last two years, our reporters have won four investigative fellowships from the USC Annenberg Center for Health Journalism.
ABOUT THE RECIPIENT: India Currents is a California-based digital news organization dedicated to serving the Asian Indian community and fostering cross-cultural communication. It is transforming the media landscape by amplifying voices from the Indian diaspora in Silicon Valley and beyond. This role is particularly vital in California, where a significant and growing population of Asian Indians enriches the state’s diverse fabric. By engaging this community, India Currents empowers them in local politics, the economy, and cultural life, offering a unique cultural lens on issues facing the community.
Founded in 1987 as a print magazine, India Currents transitioned to a fully digital, nonprofit entity in 2019. The culturally relevant narratives produced by India Currents have earned them awards from the San Francisco Press Club, the California Journalism Awards, and the Ethnic Media Awards, as well as a 2023 Arts SEVA Award for community service.
India Currents not only documents the lives, successes, and challenges of the Asian Indian community but also builds crucial community partnerships that facilitate cross-cultural communication. By filling geographic and topical gaps left by mainstream media, they play an essential role in connecting and empowering their audience, proving that community-centered journalism can thrive and make a lasting impact.
“All ethnic media have dedicated audiences because their reporting is through a cultural lens. But it’s a stepping stone for engaging audiences in broader inter-ethnic communication and in diversifying the wider civic realm,” publisher Vandana Kumar said in an interview with the Institute for Nonprofit News.