Babita Sharma

About

Babita Sharma

Babita Sharma is a journalist, TV presenter, Podcast Host and former BBC News anchor. She presented Newsday on BBC World News, covering major global news events including the Trump-Kim Summit in Singapore, the EU Referendum, the Rio Olympics and the award-winning BBC 100 Women series. Babita is an award-winning journalist and spent 10 years presenting across BBC News, including BBC Breakfast and BBC World News where most recently she covered major global news events including Covid-19 pandemic, US Elections 2020 and the Black Lives Matter protests. She was awarded the Asian Achievement Award for contributions in Media, Arts and Culture.

She is passionate about diversity and mental health issues; mentoring BAME journalists and is on the Board of Trustees for United for Global Mental Health and Patron of the South Asian Heritage Trust. Alongside the FCDO & BBC Media Action, Babita has developed international media training programmes for young aspiring journalists.

Amongst others, Babita presented Her landmark BBC Two series Dangerous Borders: The Story of India & Pakistan. The documentary series took Babita to the India/Pakistan border 70 years after Partition, following in the footsteps of her family who were directly affected.

‘The Corner Shop’ was her first book. It follows her critically acclaimed documentary Booze, Beans & Bhajis: The Story of the Corner Shop broadcast on BBC Four, BBC News Channel and BBC World News.

The critically acclaimed, award-winning book The Corner Shop was published by Two Roads (2019/2020). The book covered the social history of this unsung hero of British life. Growing up above a corner shop in 1980s Britain, Babita gives a fascinating perspective of the political and economic climate during her childhood through the lens of corner shop life.

She has become a leading commentator on multi-cultural Britain, hosting TED talk: The Corner Shop: The truth about immigration and working alongside the National Trust and the Migration Museum for two major projects about corner shop life in Britain.

A new children’s book series written by Babita: The Adventures of Priya Mistry was published by Hachette Children’s Group in 2022.

Babita is married and lives in London. She is a regular host and moderator and delivers informative keynote and after dinner speeches.