Saeed Naqvi is a senior Indian journalist, television commentator, interviewer and a distinguished fellow at Observer Research Foundation, New Delhi. He has interviewed world leaders and personalities in India and abroad, which appear in newspapers, magazines and on national television, remained editor of the World Report, a syndication service on foreign affairs, and has written for several publication, both global and Indian, including the BBC News, The Sunday Observer, The Sunday Times, The Guardian, Washington Post, The Indian Express and Outlook magazine. At the Indian Express, he started in 1977 as a Special Correspondent and eventually becoming, Editor, Indian Express, Madras and Foreign Editor, The Indian Express, Delhi and continues to writes columns and features for the paper. He was a Parvin Fellow at the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs, Princeton University, US. He is an alumni of La Martiniere College, Lucknow and studied Journalism at the Thomson School of Journalism, Cardiff, UK.
Mr Naqvi started his journalist career as Staff Reporter with The Statesman, Delhi in 1964, later he became editor of the Sunday Magazine. During this period, in spring of ’68, when The Beatles visited Maharishi Mahesh Yogi’s ashram in Rishikesh, he famously sneaked in along with fellow photographer, Raghu Rai and they not only filed new reports, but also took photographs inside. As editor and producer, of World Report, a weekly foreign affairs show on Doordarshan (the national network) called Worldview India, apart from a prime time international news and features series entitled It’s A Small World (1997 – 1999) for Star TV. From 1986-1997 World Report produced an international affairs series entitled World Report for Doordarshan, featuring interviews with major world leaders. Thereafter it produced a series of programmes entitled Hamara Bharat (My India) on India’s syncretic culture. He has been Editor, Foreign Editor, Foreign Correspondent for major Indian dailies – The Indian Express, The Statesman and written for a range of publications like New York Times, The Sunday Times, The Guardian, Washington Post, Boston Globe and others. His two famous books are Reflections of an Indian Muslim & The Last Brahmin Prime Minister. He has done extensive research on the following topics Armed Intervention in International Affairs in collaboration with the Institute of Philosophy and Public Issues, University of Melbourne, Australia. He has done extensive research on Communication, Politics, and Media in Islamic Societies; Does the War on Terror increase the chance of Pashtunistan; Kosovo – wider implications; Afghanistan – Will the US leave? ; The Arab Spring – Promises and Challenges – based on extended journeys in the region ; The future of Syria, etc.
Saeed Naqvi has been awarded with National Integration Award 2003 by the National Commission for Minorities in New Delhi. The award was conferred for his outstanding contribution towards promoting communal harmony and national integrity. He interviewed world leaders like, Nelson Mandela, Mikhail Gorbachev, Fidel Castro, Muammar Gaddafi, Daniel Ortega, Henry Kissinger, Zbigniew Brzezinski, Shimon Peres, Javier Pérez de Cuéllar , Boutros Boutros-Ghali, Kofi Annan, Ban Ki-Moon, Binyamin Netanyahu, Ali Akbar Velayati, Parvez Musharraf, Tariq Aziz, Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, Colin Powell, Ahmad Chalabi, Benazir Bhutto, Jacques Chirac, Hosni Mubarak, Prince Hassan of Jordan, Abdullah Gul and George Vassiliou.
Founder LUCKNOW Society interacted with him recently in Lucknow and discussed about his forthcoming projects. LUCKNOW Society Salutes, Saeed Naqvi for being an icon in Journalism & Media. The youth is inspired with his achievements and he is definitely a source of inspiration for the next generation. We wish him all the very best for his future assignments !