The awards, instituted by the Express Group, recognised outstanding work done in 2009 and was given away by Vice President Hamid Ansari at the Taj Palace Hotel, New Delhi.

Stories awarded highlighted a range of issues, from Naxalism to economic slowdown, dying rivers to devastating floods, addressing contemporary India and its myriad challenges. As jury member and former Indian ambassador to the US, Naresh Chandra has said: “The entries included a broad range of subjects and the stories addressed a wide range of concerns.”

The awards were instituted by the Express Group in 2006 to acknowledge and celebrate stories that needed to be told while adhering to the highest standards of ethics.

Besides Chandra, the 10-member jury included N R Narayana Murthy, mentor and founder, Infosys; Dr M S Swaminathan, agricultural scientist and Rajya Sabha MP; Shobhana Bhartia, vice-chairperson and editorial director, HT Media Limited; Bakul Dholakia, former IIM-A director; Rama Bijapurkar, leading management consultant; Shyam Benegal, filmmaker; Deepak Parekh, HDFC chairman; legal luminary Fali S Nariman and Keshub Mahindra, chairman, Mahindra & Mahindra.

And the awards went to:

Prakash Kardalay Memorial Award for Civic Journalism to Tripti Lahiri, Tehelka.

Uncovering India Invisible award (print) to Maitreyee Handique, Mint

Uncovering India Invisible award (broadcast) to Shikha Trivedi, NDTV.

Reporting in Hindi award (print) goes to Anshuman Tiwari, Dainik Jagran.

Reporting in Hindi award (broadcast) to Hridayesh Joshi, NDTV India.

Film and Television Journalism (print) to Shubhra Gupta, The Indian Express and Sonal Kalra, HT City.

Film and Television Journalism (broadcast) to Archana Sharma, Lok Sabha TV.

Books, non-fiction (The Hindus – An Alternative History) to Wendy Doniger, Penguin.

Regional Languages award (print) to V P Regeena, Madhyamam Daily.

Regional Languages award (broadcast) to Prakash Noolvi, TV 9.

Sports (print) to G S Vivek, The Indian Express.

Sports (broadcast) to Anjali Doshi, NDTV.

Reporting from J-K and Northeast (print) to Teresa Rehman, Tehelka.

Reporting from J-K and Northeast (broadcast) to Arijit Sen, CNN-IBN.

Environmental Reporting (print) to Rahul Chandawarkar, DNA and Samanth Subramanian, Mint.

Environmental Reporting (broadcast) to Arti Dattatray Kulkarni, IBN-Lokmat.

Business and Economic journalism (print) to Puja Mehra, and Saumya bhattacharya, Business Today.

Business and Economic journalism (broadcast) to Shaili Chopra, ET NOW.

Foreign Correspondent (print) to Anuj Chopra (The National Newspaper and James Astill, The Economist.

Investigative Reporting (print) to The Indian Express, Mumbai Team.

Investigative Reporting (broadcast) to NDTV India.

On-the-spot Reporting (print) to Muzamil Jaleel to The Indian Express.

On-the-spot Reporting (broadcast) to Preeti Singh, CNN-IBN.

Commentary and Interpretative Writing award (print) to R Sukumar, Mint.

Reporting on Politics and Govt (print) to Maneesh Chibber, Indian Express and Sujith Nair, Malayala Manorama.

Reporting on Politics and Govt (broadcast) to Anubha Bhosle, CNN-IBN and Maya Mirchandani, NDTV.

Priya Chandrasekhar Memorial Award for excellence in reporting to Raghav Ohri, The Indian Express.

Sanjiv Sinha Memorial Award for excellence in editing to Daksh Panwar, The Indian Express.

Journalist of the Year Award (print) to J Gopikrishnan, The Pioneer.