Rajan Datar

Currently he is the presenter and writer of Country Direct - half-hour special travelogue documentaries.

In 2012, the 12 travelogues included Brazil, Japan, Canada and Ukraine. In 2013 his trips will include Egypt, Mozambique and Zimbabwe. He has just completed a special on India and is about to embark on his next project in South Africa.

Rajan is the host of the weekly radio show Over to You on the BBC World Service and is a regular contributor to the award-winning From Our Own Correspondent.

He has made several TV and radio documentaries for both domestic and international channels.

Prior to his current projects, he worked on BBC Two’s business documentary series The Money Programme - writing and presenting more than 30 half-hour films - and spent two years as a reporter on the channel’s nightly news and current affairs programme Newsnight, specialising in culture and social trends.

He has also presented the arts and film shows The Strand and On Screen, for the BBC World Service.

Rajan started his presenting career fronting the BBC’s original independent traveller series Rough Guide to the World, Channel 4's People's Parliament and BBC Two’s new media vehicle The Net.

In 2012, he was named the Broadcast Travel Journalist of the Year 2012 in the Business Travel Awards ceremony in London.

In a varied career, Rajan has been a feature writer for The Guardian, The Times, The Observer and many other publications. He has lectured and taught at the University of London and Leeds Universities. He attended Oxford University as an undergraduate and the London School of Economics as a postgraduate student.

He has hosted many conferences all around the world, for many global organisations including the United Nations, and is a frequent guest speaker.

His other passion is music. He is the co-founder and bass player of the nine piece ska and reggae band Maroon Town and over the last 20 years has toured 30 countries, played nearly a thousand concerts and released five albums.