About us
A Worm’s-Eye View. Independent journalism rooted in ground realities, research, and lived experience.
Why The Worm?
How does India look from the top? Cacophonic, maybe, but tiny.
Indian media are huge, but they are also largely top-down – a view from New Delhi, or Mumbai, or Kolkata, or Chennai, or Bengaluru, or Hyderabad….
Metro media are dynamic, but exclude large sections of Indian populations, something that my mentor and editor, P Sainath, brilliantly bridged by launching in 2014, the People’s Archive of Rural India (PARI), a people’s media, driven by and focused on the huge universe of rural India.
Regional and language media were once in touch with the grounds from where they emanated, but unmistakenly distanced today from the transformative processes of our time.
Having spent nearly three decades in the field, repurposing my own reporting is in order. Towards that goal, I want to showcase and archive my own work, build a portfolio of sorts, that will bring my past works and ongoing reporting at one place – like a portfolio. But also use theworm as a platform to reflect and share what I see on the ground.
This reporting is therefore not a bird’s eye view of the countryside, but a worm’s eye view.
India looks vastly different through this lens.
- BIO
Professional Experience
Independent: 2017 to Present
- December 2017 to Present
- Roving Reporter and Core Team Member
- People’s Archive of Rural India (PARI)
Roving Reporter and Core Team Member, People’s Archive of Rural India (PARI), December 2017 to Present. I report for the country’s only people-supported digital platform reporting and archiving the processes in rural India; the contributions include features and long form stories, on a wide range of rural issues – from the human-wildlife conflict to agrarian crisis and farmers’ suicides, to water stress, social change, to rural politics.
- June 2018 to June 2019
- Retainer
- BBC News Online
Contributed feature articles on socio-political issues of Vidarbha region of Maharashtra in English and Marathi.
- September 2017 to February 2018
- Consulting Editor, English section
- Dainik Bhaskar, Nagpur
Edited an English special supplement for the Hindi’s daily’s young readers.
Columns and articles in: Scientific American, Brand Eins, News18, The Times of India, Deccan Herald, The Telegraph (I write a monthly column called Hinterland), Mongabay India, The Wire, The Livemint (Hindustan Times Group), The Federal, and others – I write on issues ranging from agrarian crisis, unemployment crisis, climate change, internal armed conflicts, environment to politics.
Full Time: 1997-2017
- April 2011 to February 2017
- Assistant Editor for Central India
- The Telegraph
Reported on rural issues, climate change, politics, economy, Maoist insurgency in central India, emerging water conflicts and other national trends.
- July 2005 to February 2011
- Principal Correspondent for Nagpur
- Daily News & Analysis
Covered issues such as rural economy, Maoist insurgency, and demographic and politics.
- September 2002 to June 2005
- Senior Staff Reporter
- The Hitavada (an English newspaper), Nagpur
- March 1997 to August 2002
- Staff Reporter,
- Lokmat Times, Nagpur
Teaching and research
- February 2023 to present
- Senior Visiting Faculty
- IFMR Krea University, Sri City, AP
Teach a few electives in offline and online mode in one trimester: ‘Agrarian crisis and Indian Society,’ ‘Creative Non-Fiction – The art and craft of long form journalism’, ‘Environment Vs Development – the policy dilemma’ and ‘Environmental Communication’ at the School of Interwoven Arts and Sciences (SIAS).
Visiting Faculty also at Indian Institute of Mass Communication, Amravati, Department of Mass Communication, Nagpur University, Symbiosis Institute of Mass Communication, January 2014 to Present
Teach three-day short modules on social-change communication and rural reporting.
- October 2018 to November 2021
- Fellow
- Mumbai School of Economics and Public Policy
Research and writing focus was on the participatory irrigation management in Vidarbha region of Maharashtra.
- 2015 to present
- Co-author and member of Research Project Team on ‘Rural India in Crisis’
- Monash University, MAI, Faculty of Arts
- September 2021
- National Consultant, External Review Mission
- GIZ
Assisted the Mission in assessing the ongoing project called Pro-Soil in India funded by GIZ by reviewing grassroots experiences.
- Awards
Fellowships & Honours
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This section highlights professional recognitions and awards received for outstanding journalism, reporting, and editorial work. The accolades listed here reflect a commitment to accuracy, impactful storytelling, and journalistic excellence.
Ramoji Award for Excellence in Journalism
November 2025
Awarded by Ramoji Group, India’s leading media group, the maiden Ramoji Excellence Award 2025 in the category of Journalism; the awards “honour unsung individuals who have made an outstanding contribution in their respective fields and inspired the society at large through their exemplary achievements’.
Fellow, Asia Leadership Fellow Program, International House of Japan, and Japan Foundation
2015
Two-month program bringing eight Asian public intellectuals together in Tokyo for dialogue with the Japanese public intellectuals on the theme: ‘Seeking our commons in Asia: How can we create visions for the future?’ My own focus was on the benefits of moving away from traditional worldviews, toward secular civic identities.
New India Foundation (NIF) fellowship
April 2021
To write a book on ‘The Empress of Central India’ – the first Tata venture and its lasting impact on Nagpur and central India (Ongoing).
Ramnath Goenka Award (Environment, Science and Technology Reporting)
December 2021
Part of the People’s Archive of Rural India (PARI) team, for its reporting of climate change.
Prem Bhatia Award for Outstanding Environmental Reporting, Prem Bhatia Trust
2013
Awarded “for outstanding and consistent reporting of rural development issues,” particularly my reportage on the ongoing water crisis in Maharashtra, India.
Alfred Friendly Press Fellowship
2009
(a prestigious, international six-month program), 2009; Worked in South Florida with Sun Sentinel; reported on the US agriculture and farm subsidies.
Anilkumar Memorial Award, Nagpur Union of Working Journalists
2009
Awarded for ongoing reporting on the agrarian crisis and farm suicides in Vidarbha.
National Child Rights & Child Study Fellow, Child Rights and You
2008
Awarded for ongoing reporting on the agrarian crisis and farm suicides in Vidarbha.
Research Associate, Nero’s Guests
2007
a documentary on P. Sainath’s work on India’s agrarian crisis,
Media Scholarship, Prem Bhatia Memorial Trust
2005-2006
to study the agrarian crisis in Vidarbha.
Participant, International Institute of Journalism, Berlin, and the Asian College of Journalism
2006
A two-week academy for young South Asian journalists in Chennai
S. R. Nanekar Memorial Award, Nanekar Memorial Trust
2005
for reportage on rural issues mainly poverty and migration
Media Fellowship, National Foundation for India
2002-2003
Researched the social, economic, and cultural problems of rural migrants (distress migration from rural to urban) in India, with special reference to gender issues and agrarian crisis.
Fellow, K. K. Birla Foundation
2000-2001
Studied and reported the problems of those displaced by fourteen development projects in India leading to a book.
Yeshwant Shastri Award for Investigative Journalism, Pustak Mela Samiti
2005
for reportage on rural issues mainly poverty and migration
Defence Correspondents Course, Indian Ministry of Defence,
2000
Get in touch
- Write to:
- thewormreporter@gmail.com
Jaideep Hardikar
Jaideep Hardikar is a senior journalist and PARI Roving Reporter, based in Nagpur. He is author of Ramrao: The story of India’s farm crisis.