BRAJESH BHATIA is well known in the Asian region as broadcast trainer and communication researcher. He was Deputy Director at the Asia-Pacific Institute for Broadcasting Development (1977–1989). Prior to that he worked at the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific, Bangkok, Thailand (1971–1974); Asian Mass Communication Research and Information Centre, Singapore (1974– 1976); and in various ministries in the Government of India (1954–1971). He was Senior Adviser (Training) at the Asian Institute for Development Communication, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia (1998–2000) before finally returning to India.
Mr Brajesh Bhatia started his professional career in 1954 with the first rural newspaper, SEVAGRAM, published in India. He joined the Government of India’s Ministry of Food and Agriculture in November 1955 as assistant editor of the largest circulated monthly magazine, Dharti ke Lal, for farmers and helped in establishing farm broadcasting units all over India.

In 1962, he joined the Ministry of Community Development and Cooperation as Officer on Special Duty and set up 203,000 rural libraries for neo-literates in India. He joined the Ministry of Health and Family Planning in August 1963 as editor of the monthly magazine, Family Planning News, the first of its kind exclusively devoted to family planning.

The Ford Foundation Fellowship awarded to Brajesh Bhatia in 1965 enabled him to pursue further studies in the field of communication research at the University of Chicago. He later taught communication research at the Bhartiya Vidya Bhavan in India.

In December 1971 Brajesh Bhatia joined the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific in Bangkok as project officer. And later moved to Singapore in 1974 to head the publications unit of the Asian Mass Communication Research and Information Centre.

He joined the Unesco Broadcasting Training Project in August 1976 in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, and was part of the team which helped in setting the regional body responsible for broadcasting training in the region, the Asia-Pacific Institute for Broadcasting Development (AIBD). Became its Regional Training Coordinator in 1984 and Deputy Director in 1985 responsible for executing AIBD’s more than 50 regional, sub-regional and in-country courses annually.

He then coordinated the development broadcasting project funded by Canadian International Development Assistance and executed in India, Indonesia and Papua New Guinea (1985–88). During his tenure at AIBD, he conceived and organized many innovative conferences, e.g. Broadcasting and the Law in 1982, Satellite Television in 1985, High Definition Television in 1987, Computers in Broadcasting in 1989, BroadcastAsia 1990, etc. and coordinated the regional project on population communication and management, one of the biggest regional project funded by the United Nations Population Fund for ten years, 1978-1989. He also served as UNDP/ILO consultant for four months in 1980 in Nepal to train the professional and technical staff of the Panchayati Raj training centres.

From 1990 to 1997 Brajesh Bhatia worked as an independent international communications consultant, organizing regional and international conferences, workshops and seminars. And later served as Senior Regional Adviser at the Asian Institute for Development Communication (Aidcom) from 1998 to 2000 during which period he organized several regional conferences.

Brajesh Bhatia has been the vice-president of the International Association for Mass Communication Research (1978–1985) and trustee for the International Institute of Communications from 1988 to 1991.

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