Prime Minister Narendra Modi on March 7 conferred the newly formed National Creators Award to online content creators. The awardees included personal trainer-turned-podcaster Ranveer Allahbadia, who goes by BeerBiceps, and has partnered with the Digital India Corporation to interview a series of Cabinet Ministers; Abhi and Niyu, a married duo with more than five million YouTube subscribers; Keerthika Govindhasamy of the Instagram account Keerthi History; and Pankti Pandey, a former ISRO scientist who is now a sustainability influencer.
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Other awardees included Shraddha Jain, known by her screen name Aiyyo Shraddha, and Kamiya Jani of Curly Tales. Some awardees have had crucial access to feature and amplify key government officials over the last couple years — Ms. Jani has interviewed Union Ministers, including Road Transport and Highways Minister Nitin Gadkari and Information and Broadcasting Minister Anurag Thakur, while Mr. Allahbadia has interviewed Mr. Gadkari and External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar; Ms. Jain was part of a group that met Mr. Modi last February in Bengaluru, which included former Indian men’s cricket captain Anil Kumble and actor Rishab Shetty.
Other influencers
Other influencers feted at the event included Jaya Kishori, who “shares stories from Bhagavad Gita and Ramayana insightfully,” according to a press note; ‘Agri Creator’ Lakshya Dabas; singer Maithili Thakur; and three international creators: Kili and Neema Paul from Tanzania, the U.S. native Andrew Hicks, and Cassandra Mae Spittmann from Germany. Ms. Spittmann has drawn praise for her singing of traditional Indian songs from Mr. Modi in the past; Mr. Hicks creates content in Hindi and Bhojpuri; Mr. and Mrs. Paul are farmers making content featuring hit Indian songs.
Gaurav Chaudhary, a popular Hindi-language technology YouTuber known as Technical Guruji, received the Tech Creator Award. Aman Gupta, founder and chief executive officer of the personal electronics brand boAT won the Celebrity Creator Award; Mr. Gupta is best known for being one of the ‘sharks’ on the Indian adaptation of Shark Tank.
