Kathmandu, November 2:

Rakesh Wadhwa, a columnist in The Himalayan Times (THT), has won the third prize at the fifth annual Bastiat Prize for Journalism in New York.

Tim Harford of the Financial Times and and Jamie Whyte of The Times, United Kingdom were the other winners. Wadhwa writes a weekly column ‘Taking Stock’, every Monday in the business page of The Himalayan Times (THT) for the last three years.

The Prize, named in honour of the great 19th Century French philosopher and essayist Frédéric Bastiat, celebrates writers whose work cleverly and wittily promotes the institution of the free society.

Entries for the Bastiat Prize are judged on intellectual content, persuasiveness of language used, and type and location of publication.

There were 250 entries from more than 40 countries in the competition this year.

Apart from Hartford, Whyte and Wadhwa, the other 2006 finalists were Frank Miele of The Daily Inter Lake, USA, Ila Patnaik of the Indian Express, India and Gabriel Rozenberg, The Times, UK.