Kumar Sambhav Shrivastava is one of the 12 finalists for this year's Global Shining Light Award to be presented at the conference. The investigation, for which he has been shortlisted, looked into a collaboration between security agencies in the Indian state of Jharkhand and rogue armed groups fighting Maoist insurgents. Data and narrative collected during the investigation showed that local communities were victimized more often by the state-supported gangs than by the insurgency.

Shrivastava works as Special Correspondent with Scroll.in, India's leading online news magazine. He is also a co-founder of Land Conflict Watch, a unique data journalism project that maps ongoing land conflicts in India. He writes on issues at the intersection of human rights, environment, industry and politics in India.

Shrivastava has received National Award for Excellence in Journalism from the Press Council of India, the Young Journalist from the Developing World Award (Runner Up) from the Foreign Press Association of London and the Young Asian Environment Journalist Award from the Singapore Environment Council. He has worked with the Hindustan Times, Times of India, Down To Earth and Dainik Bhasker in the past.