Bloomberg wins Asia Society’s Osborn Elliott Prize

Asia Society announced Wednesday that a three-person team from Bloomberg News has won the 2015 Osborn Elliott Prize for Excellence in Journalism on Asia, awarded annually for the best example of journalism about Asia during the previous calendar year.

Selected by an independent jury, the winning stories by Rakteem Katakey, Tom Lasseter and Rajesh Kumar Singh, chronicled the dire health consequences of uranium and coal mining in India for some of its poorest citizens, against a broader narrative about India’s quest for growth and lax environmental regulation and enforcement.

“These stories helped bring attention to communities where the poorest of the poor and their children are being deformed and killed by diseases that are linked to local industrial pollution,” said Oz Prize Jury Chair Marcus Brauchli, managing partner of North Base Media and former editor of The Washington Post and the Wall Street Journal, in a statement. “Our decision to award the prize to Bloomberg News was based on the deep reporting that went into the series, as well as the effects the stories had in India which included the widening of scrutiny of local industries and government regulatory agencies.”

The award — a $10,000 cash prize — will be presented at a public program on Wednesday, June 3, 2015 at Asia Society in New York.

Katakey is Bloomberg News’ energy reporter based in London and previously covered energy and markets from the New Delhi bureau. Prior to Bloomberg, he was with India’s Business Standard newspaper. Rakteem has written extensively on Asian energy and covered energy geopolitics, the Fukushima nuclear disaster and India’s vast water problems. He graduated from the University of Delhi with a Master’s degree in English Literature.

Over the last 12 years, Lasseter has been based in Iraq, Russia, China and India, and reported widely from each. Tom has won numerous awards including the Robert F. Kennedy Journalism Award, the Overseas Press Club’s Madeline Dane Ross Award, Hal Boyle Award and the Society of Professional Journalists’ Sigma Delta Chi award for international reporting. He has a bachelor’s degree from the University of Georgia.

Singh is Bloomberg News’ energy and commodities reporter based in New Delhi covering policy changes affecting businesses in India. Prior to Bloomberg, he worked for India’s leading publications including Businessworld and India Today. He has a B.A. degree in English literature from India’s Burdwan University.