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.
