Prof K.M. Shrivastava Is No More

Prof K.M. Shrivastava, seniormost Professor at the Indian Institute of Mass Communication (IIMC), New Delhi, collapsed suddenly on August 28 night at the Nizamuddin Railway Station, New Delhi. He was 63. He had just returned to Delhi from the IIMC-Jammu and reached Nizamuddin Railway Station from the Delhi Airport to board a train for Bhopal. Prof Shrivastava was with a former student, who had come to drop him at the station, when he collapsed. Prof Shrivastava was rushed to the All India Institute of Medical Sciences’ Trauma Centre but was declared dead on arrival.

Prof K.M. Shrivastava was a dedicated media educationist and, as a Professor at the IIMC for more than 25 years, he had done pioneering work in training journalists from developing countries, specially from Africa and South-East Asia. He also ran the well-sought-after special media sensitisation programme for personnel from the Indian armed forces, para-military and police. Presently, he was mentoring students in all the new branches of the IIMC across the country.

Prof Shrivastava was a veteran member of the IAMCR and had been an IAMCR delegate to the UN World Summit on Information Society at Geneva in 2003 and Tunis in 2005. He was a prolific writer on media issues and had authored many books. One of his recent books was Social Media in Business and Governance published in April 2013.

A formar journalist with a long stint with news agencies and newspapers, Prof Shrivastava joined media education in Patiala University at the peak of terrorism in Punjab. He later served at the Makhanlal University before joining the Indian Institute of Mass Communication, his alma mater.

Prof Shrivastava was the Course Director of the Special SAARC Workshop for Mediapersons organised by the Kathmandu-based SAARC Information Centre (SIC) at the IIMC-New Delhi last year.

On August 29 afternoon, Prof Shrivastava’s body was briefly kept at the IIMC-New Delhi Campus for students and the faculty to pay homage and was later flown to Bhopal, his hometown, for cremation the following day.

Prof Shrivastava was a bachelor and is survived by his mother and four sisters.

Rich tributes were paid to him at two memorial meetings at the IIMC-New Delhi and the India International Centre on September 8 and 9 respectively.