Thread by @nit_set

#Thread: Some good news.

(Please stay with me till the end.)

1. We are setting up a new Fellowship Program for Independent Journalists.

To create and establish it, I have joined as the Media Lead at the National Foundation for India @NFI_India.

2. The new Media Fellowship Program will respond to the current crisis in journalism, strengthens credible reportage and enable independent journalists.

I will be working with NFI's Executive Director, Biraj Patnaik @birajpat to co-create the Fellowship Program.

3. The initial concept of a new fellowship — one that responds dynamically to current needs of journalism in India — came from discussions within The Reporters' Collective @reporters_co.

4. We @reporters_co were disturbed by news of fellow journalists losing jobs. And, by the shrinking of avenues and resources for independent and contracted journalists.

5. As a response to this crisis @kum_sambhav, @akoi_Jam, @shr_shreya71 and @Ankur_pali helped draw the contours of the new fellowships. We took the idea to several other co-travellers to chisel it out better.

6. We reached out to @NFI_India

We knew it has run a prestigious media fellowship since 1994, producing some stellar journalism and helping some superb journalists shine out.

7. We knew its new ED, @birajpat has the heart, mind and ability to get the new fellowship going, and going at scale.

8. As we had hoped, NFI has taken the lead. It will host and run the new journalism fellowship program.

We will do this together. As a collective.

9. In this case, The "We" includes:

--> Readers who want better journalism. We know. All of you do.

--> Citizens, civil society and other institutions in a position to help.

--> Journalist fraternity. Those who are better off and can help others.

10. Many media organisations and individuals are already doing their bit to keep good journalism afloat. The new NFI fellowship will strengthen their hands.

11. There are many fantastic, hard-working and courageous journalists across the country who work in adverse conditions to keep us better informed.

NFI's new fellowships will provide resources, avenues and support to such journalists.

12. We have begun to to forge an alliance of like-minded citizens, journalists, media organisations and others to make the fellowship program a collective response.

13. We have set ourselves an ambitious target and a stiff time-schedule to launch it.

As always, we need your support, blessing and guidance to make it happen.

14. Oh. Just in case you were wondering. Our deep-dive and investigative journalism at The Reporters' Collective continues to make progress. (We shall tell you more on it soon and separately).

15. For now, follow @NFI_India and @birajpat as well. We shall soon be out with more details on NFI's new journalism fellowships.

End.

Ps: As always, there is a simple way to check if I drafted the tweet thread or not: Does it have spell, grammar and syntax errors or not?