A graduate from Assam Engineering College (under Gauhati University), Thakuria contributes news-features to various newspapers of India along with several media outlets based in different parts of the world.
Starting his career as a reporter in Natun Dainik, a popular Assamese language daily in 1990, Thakuria shifted to freelance journalism in English by 1999. His focus area of reporting remains the socio-political, cultural and environmental developments taking place in eastern India along with Bhutan, Tibet, Myanmar and Bangladesh.
The changing face of mainstream journalism after the advent of alternate media worldwide is also a primary focus area for him. Till now, Thakuria has visited most of the prime localities in India and also Thimphu, Dhaka, Yangon, Bangkok, Kuala Lumpur, Copenhagen,
Chicago, etc for different events and professional assignments.
Created in the Swiss city of Geneva in 2004 by a group of journalists, PEC the global media safety and rights body with the consultative status at the United Nations, is devoted to strengthening the legal protection and safety of journalists around the world. Since 2009, it
has been awarding its annual prize to an individual or an organization, who works for the protection of journalists and the press freedom on the ground.
The award had earlier gone to Mexican journalist Carmen Aristegui in 2020. In the previous year, the PEC awarded the Afghanistan Journalists Center director Ahmad Quraishi, whereas in 2018 the family of journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia (who was murdered in Malta in October 2017) received the posthumous award on her behalf.
