Media entrepreneur Dravid is Innovator in Residence Sept. 26-27

Shiv Bhaskar Dravid
Shiv Bhaskar Dravid

Shiv Bhaskar Dravid, the founder and chief executive of The Viewspaper – The Voice of the Youth of India, will be the fifth Innovator in Residence at the College of Journalism and Mass Communications. He will visit UNL Sept. 26 and 27.

Theviewspaper.net presents opinions of youth on a variety of subjects that include politics, environmental issues, entertainment and literature in India and the United Kingdom. The website itself is a combination of documentaries and videos, music, games and photos.

The Viewspaper is India’s largest youth paper with a network of 6,000 contributors, 149,000 Facebook followers and a small paid editorial team. The Web paper plans to expand into the U.S., Dubai, Australia and Singapore.

“Through my initiative, I wanted to give the youth of the country some space to air their views on various subjects,” Dravid said in an interview for Ashoka’s Youth Venture blog. “All discussions on the television and most writings in print media are meant largely for the older generation. With such a large population of youth in the country today, what they think about various issues is also important.”

Before coming to UNL, Dravid is speaking at the International Monetary Fund and World Bank’s annual meeting in Washington, D.C. He is an IMF fellow and a part of the youth initiative of the IMF. He is raising youth concerns on various global economic and social issues and also giving suggestions on how the IMF and World Bank can improve and make a greater impact on youth. After leaving UNL, Dravid will represent India at the G-20Y Summit in Paris to discuss global economic and social issues.

Founded only four years ago, The Viewspaper is gaining national recognition from the global entrepreneur community. In 2010, Dravid was a finalist in the Staples Young Social Entrepreneur Competition, and The Viewspaper made the short list of the TATA NEN Hottest Start-up Awards. TATA is an Indian business group with international ties, and the National Entrepreneurship Network is India’s leader in entrepreneurship education.

The Viewspaper generates revenue from advertising placed on the website and became self-sustaining in 2010.

Dravid is a graduate of the University of Delhi’s Shri Ram College of Commerce.

The Innovators in Residence program brings students and media innovators and entrepreneurs together. Previous Innovators in Residence in the college have included Susan Poulton, head of National Geographic’s digital sites and projects; Jessica Mayberry, founding director of Video Volunteers in India; Oh Yeon-ho, founder of South Korea’s citizen journalism website OhmyNews; and Alexander Zolotarev, founder and CEO of SochiReporter.ru in Russia.

More details at: http://go.unl.edu/cze