Niharika Acharya
Niharika Acharya is the Executive Director at The Hill. She leads the event content team in ideation, strategy setting and speaker recruitment. In taking events from concept to execution, she works closely with The Hill's newsroom to develop programs that examine the impact of policies and regulations on a national and international scale. Previously, as a senior producer with Atlantic LIVE, the events division of The Atlantic, her work focused on politics and policy events. She played a leading role in the conceptualization and execution of events during the 2016 Republican and Democratic conventions.
Prior to that as the editorial director of National Journal LIVE, she led content creation and speaker recruitment for events and managed the content team. Prior to joining the National Journal, she was a freelance producer at Fox TV. Niharika worked at Bloomberg TV from 2010 to 2014, she was the Producer of Bloomberg Television's flagship political show, Political Capital with Al Hunt, a political show with an economic edge. The show features discussions on national and international news, along with a weekly wrap-up and interviews with key political figures.
Before joining Bloomberg Television Niharika Acharya was a television news reporter and anchor for Voice of America. As a reporter/editor Niharika covered 2004 and 2008 U.S Presidential Elections, UN General Assembly sessions, 9/11 Anniversaries and US-India Relations (including the U.S-India Nuclear Deal. She was the Managing Editor of Voice of America's India Service. The VOA India service is now defunct. Her noteworthy interviews include Former US President Bill Clinton, Former Turkmenistani Prime Minister Soha heena Saqib Ashraf Ghani, Indian and Tajikistani foreign ministers, Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal, State Dept officials, NASA Astronauts: Neil Armstrong, Suni Williams, members of American Congress, Indian Politicians and Hollywood-Bollywood artists.
Early life
Niharika Acharya was born in the small hamlet of Sarahan in northern India. She earned a Master of Arts in the Mass Communication research centre at Jamia Milia Islamia university in New Delhi. She graduated at the top of her class in political science from Lady Shri Ram College for Women in New Delhi. She completed her schooling from a New Delhi-based school Air Force Golden Jubilee Institute.
Career
Niharika worked with Indian TV news channel NDTV as reporter and anchor for seven years. Later she left for the United States and joined Voice of America Hindi TV and Radio service in 2003. She is still working with VoA as correspondent and anchor. As part of VoA collaboration with Aaj Tak TV news channel, she also anchors 'Duniya' (The World) program 'LIVE' on Aaj Tak every Sunday evening. Niharika also contribute to VOA Hindi radio as fill-in host for weekly call-in shows 'Hello India' and 'Hello America' and her television reports are also aired on radio as well.
Niharika has lived and travelled across India, and now travels across the United States in search of stories.
Notable reporting
Niharika Acharya has covered President Bush's inauguration for his second term, the US November 2004 presidential elections, 9/11 anniversaries, Indian prime minister Manmohan Singh's meeting with President George W. Bush at the United Nations General Assembly session, and former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee's official visit to U.S. She also travelled to Pakistan to cover the India-Pakistan peace dialogue summit meet at Islamabad between the leaders of the two countries. She also covered the relief efforts mounted by American communities for 26 December 2004 Tsunami disaster victims and their families.
Awards
Niharika has received VoA's superior accomplishment award.