Maya Sharma

Maya Sharma has been a journalist for over 35 years. She started her television news career with India’s national network, Doordarshan, as part of the very first batch of trained TV journalists in the country. She moved to New Delhi Television Ltd in 1995 and worked there as a reporter and anchor for 26 years. She was Executive Editor of the channel and headed the Bengaluru bureau. She is based in Bengaluru, Karnataka and has also reported from all the South Indian states.

A big part of her work has been political reporting and since 1989, she has covered every general election in India and every state election in Karnataka.

Maya has reported on a wide range of topics including politics, human interest stories, gender-issues, crime, business, culture, the environment, civic issues and sports – including extensive coverage or the Indian passion of cricket. Wildlife and animal welfare are particular areas of interest.

During the course of her work she has had memorable interactions with famous newsmakers in many fields – and also told the stories of ‘ordinary’ citizens dealing with what life has dealt to them.

As an anchor, Maya hosted had her own weekly talk shows from Bengaluru. She has anchored national bulletins, and produced and anchored several documentary films including an award-winning feature on the changing face of the city of Bengaluru. Other subjects of her documentaries include the then new call-centre phenomenon in Bengaluru, child adoption, a family using music to face the challenges of raising two children with special needs, the changing nature of work, illegal mining in Ballari and environmental issues.

Some of her major assignments include the 2004 tsunami, the crimes and death of the poacher Veerappan, the Mangaluru air crash, farmer distress, floods and droughts in south India and the Covid 19 pandemic.
Maya’s international assignments include the inauguration of Nelson Mandela in Pretoria in 1994 ,the ASEAN summit in Kuala Lumpur in 2005 as part of the media team accompanying then Prime Minister, Manmohan Singh and reports from Occupy Wall Street protests in Washington and New York. She has also covered summits on the use of technology in education held in Hong Kong, Brazil, Cape Town, Washington and Prague.

Maya is a Fulbright Fellow and spent her Fulbright year at the Newhouse School of Communication in Syracuse University in New York State. She has won state and national awards for her work -including the 2023 Karnataka Rajyotsava Award – and was short listed for the UK-based Association for International Broadcasting awards.

Maya is currently an independent journalist contributing to TV, radio, print and online news outlets. She is also a Visiting Professor at the Indian Institute of Journalism and New Media, an Adjunct Professor at Manipal Academy of Higher Education and on the Board of Studies of the National School of Journalism and Chanakya University.