Home Institution India: Freelance Journalist and Geo-political commentator

Anchal Sharma

Ms. Anchal Sharma is a Ph.D. candidate at IIT Delhi. Her research encompasses tactile perception of objects in the visually challenged. Drawn towards innovations exercising imagination, scientific thinking, and strong user empathy, she has mentored and participated in diverse social innovation projects and won two awards by IISc, Bangalore and IIT-Delhi with her team. She has led and been a speaker in events propagating innovation including those by AIM, NITI AYOG.

She completed her M.Des. in Industrial design (from SPA, New Delhi) and interned at GVIC, PepsiCo, India. She was acknowledged for her thesis work for integrating cultural spatial forms in a unique product using principles of light and shadows to educate children about unity. The project was sponsored by the Design Clinic Scheme by GoI and NID and was featured as a finalist in Toycathon 2021 and TISDC 2018. During her B.Arch. she emerged as a 2nd ranker both for her thesis work on ‘a school for experiential learning’ and overall 5-year academic performance.

In her Fulbright-Nehru project, she will analyse how to better convey three-dimensionality in two-dimensional tactile stimuli. Although layered and complex, she believes with continual deep-work and problem-solving acumen, this work can profoundly advance and contribute towards accessible STEM education for those without vision.

She believes in a multi-faceted growth and commends the perseverance sports can bring to life. She has played Throwball at National level and won silver medal (Badminton) at college level. Being perceptive towards life, she exercises self-expression through art, writing, and short videos.

Minaam Reyaz Shah

Mr. Minaam Shah obtained his master’s degree in politics and international relations from the University of Kashmir and is a full-time freelance journalist based out of Kashmir. He has completed courses in social entrepreneurship and modern diplomacy, and his work has been regularly featured in the Foreign Policy magazine, South China Morning Post, Nikkei Asia, and The Diplomat, among others.

Mr. Shah’s writing career began when he joined an acclaimed news portal, The Kashmir Walla in 2020. After a brief stint there, he started covering the refugee beat for several international publications and has written on the issues of refugees, forced migrations, and displaced communities in South Asia, including the Afghans, the Rohingyas, and the Tibetans.

Before joining journalism, Mr. Shah published regular commentary for a U.S. magazine The National Interest, where he closely followed the broad contours of U.S. policy towards South Asia. In addition, Mr. Shah helped set up the publication and communication verticals of a European think tank.

During his Fulbright-Nehru Master’s fellowship, Mr. Shah is pursuing graduate studies in international relations at Tufts university. He believes this program will equip him with a multidisciplinary approach to optimally analyze issues of forced migration and displacement. Furthermore, he is confident this fellowship will help him realize his objective of building spaces for solution-based journalism and of adding new perspectives to policy research on global refugee crises.