News Broadcasting
Indian Software industry evangelist dies in Sydney
The one thing that caught your attention about Dewang Mehta was his passion for the Indian software industry and the dramatic manner in which he spoke. However, the 38-year old passed away quietly and alone in a five star hotel in Sydney this morning, shocking the entire software industry with his untimely death.
Mehta was part of a technology delegation led by IT Minister Pramod Mahajan and was to catch this evening’s flight (local time) for home. and he was supposed to check out of the Hotel Park Hyatt by 11:30 am this morning. When he failed to do so, the hotel staff broke open the door by 5 PM in the evening and found him dead in the room. No foul play is suspected so far and the cause of death is not known.
Mahajan told UNI that he met him on Wednesday night and he appeared to be hale and hearty. The shocked minister said he would try and bring back Mehta’s body back on Friday after the local police had completed all the procedural formalities. Mehta was a bachelor.
Mehta also had links with the television industry. Quoting him from his website http://www.dewangmehta.com ,” I’ve been working towards providing Internet Through Cable TV in India. One of my key objective is to promote local content development on Internet. My dream is to have at least 2mbps of bandwidth for every adult citizen of India.”
News Broadcasting
Senior media executive Madhu Soman exits Zee Media
Former Reuters and Bloomberg leader says he leaves with “no regrets” after brief stint at WION and Zee Business
NOIDA: Madhu Soman, a veteran of global newsrooms and media sales floors, has stepped away from Zee Media Corporation after a short stint steering business strategy for WION and Zee Business.
In a reflective LinkedIn note marking his departure, Soman said his time within the network’s corridors was always likely to be brief. “Some chapters close faster than expected,” he wrote, signalling the end of a nearly two-year spell in which he oversaw both editorial partnerships and commercial strategy.
Soman joined Zee Media in 2022 after more than a decade abroad with Reuters and Bloomberg, returning to India to take on the role of chief business officer for WION and Zee Business. His mandate was ambitious: bridge the newsroom and the revenue desk while expanding digital and broadcast reach.
During the stint, Zee Business reached break-even for the first time since its launch in 2005, while WION refreshed programming and strengthened its digital footprint across platforms such as YouTube and Facebook.
But Soman suggested the cultural fit proved uneasy. Describing himself as a “cultural misfit”, he hinted at deeper tensions between editorial instincts shaped in global newsrooms and the realities of India’s television news ecosystem.
Before joining Zee, Soman spent more than seven years at Bloomberg in Hong Kong as head of broadcast sales for Asia-Pacific, expanding the company’s news syndication business across several markets. Earlier, he held senior editorial roles at Reuters, overseeing online strategy in India and managing Reuters Video Services from London.
His career began in television and wire reporting, including a stint with ANI during the 1999 Kargil conflict, before moving into digital publishing as India’s internet media landscape took shape.
Now, after nearly three decades in broadcast and digital media, Soman is leaving Delhi NCR and returning to his hometown, Trivandrum.
Exhausted, he admits. But unbowed. And with one quiet line that sums up the journey: he didn’t sell his soul — because some things, after all, are not for sale.
