People
Prasoon Joshi appointed chairman of Prasar Bharati
The lyricist and creative heavyweight takes the helm of India’s public broadcaster as it battles a fast-changing media landscape
NEW DELHI: India’s public broadcaster has a new boss, and he is not your typical bureaucrat. The government on Saturday named Prasoon Joshi, one of the country’s most celebrated lyricists, poets and advertising minds, as chairman of Prasar Bharati, ending months of vacancy at the top of the organisation since former chairman Navneet Kumar Sehgal, a bureaucrat, quit in December.
The Ministry of Information and Broadcasting made the announcement, a day after it named filmmaker Ashutosh Gowariker as director of the International Film Festival of India, signalling a deliberate pivot towards creative figures in key cultural posts.
Joshi is no stranger to public life. Since August 2017, he has served as chairperson of the Central Board of Film Certification in Mumbai, navigating the perpetually thorny terrain between creative freedom and regulatory duty. Before that, he was chief executive of McCann World Group India and chairman of McCann World Group Asia Pacific. He has also been a trustee of the Indira Gandhi National Centre for the Arts since 2016.
His body of work, spanning film lyrics that lodge themselves in the national consciousness, advertising campaigns of uncommon resonance and poetry rooted in the rhythms of everyday India, has made him a rare crossover figure, equally at home in a Bollywood studio and a boardroom.
Union Minister of Information and Broadcasting Ashwini Vaishnaw was effusive. “Prasoon Joshi is a rare creative spirit celebrated across the world in advertising, literature, art and cinema. Yet his heart beats unmistakably for India. His words carry the fragrance of our soil, and his vision reflects the timeless essence of our culture,” he said, adding that under Joshi’s stewardship, “Prasar Bharati will discover renewed energy, deeper purpose, and a fresh creative voice.”
The challenge is formidable. Prasar Bharati, established under the Prasar Bharati (Broadcasting Corporation of India) Act of 1990 and operational since 1997, oversees two behemoths of Indian media: All India Radio, one of the world’s largest radio networks, and Doordarshan, the national television broadcaster. The organisation has also launched Waves, a free-to-air OTT platform, as it scrambles to stay relevant in an era of streaming giants and shrinking attention spans.
For a man who has spent a career turning words into movements, the brief is clear: make India’s oldest public broadcaster matter again.
People
HAL chairman D K Sunil steps down after superannuation
The defence giant’s top boss exits after less than two years in the role, leaving behind a mixed legacy of technological advances and two Tejas crashes
BENGALURU: One of India’s most prominent defence executives has called time. D K Sunil ceased to be chairman and managing director of Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd. upon his superannuation on April 30th, 2026, the company announced in a regulatory filing on Friday. The exit was orderly but the legacy, like much of his tenure, is complicated.
“Dr D K Sunil has ceased as chairman and managing director of the company upon his superannuation on 30th April, 2026,” HAL said in its filing. Shares of the defence major closed at Rs 4,336.70 per scrip on Thursday, down Rs 15.40, or 0.35 per cent.
A lifer at the controls
Sunil was no parachute appointment. He joined HAL in 1987 as a management trainee and spent 37 years rising through its ranks, contributing to design, production, quality enhancement, and customer support. Before taking charge as chairman and managing director in September 2024, he served as director of engineering and research and development from September 29th, 2022. A company man through and through, his elevation to the top job was the culmination of a career built entirely within HAL.
His academic credentials are formidable. Sunil completed his undergraduate degree in electronics and communication engineering from Osmania University, Hyderabad, before pursuing an M.Tech in aircraft production engineering from IIT Madras. He rounded off his academic journey with a PhD in electronics science from the University of Hyderabad in 2019, well into his senior years at the company.
Technologies built, partnerships forged
During his tenure, HAL pushed into new technological terrain. The company developed the High Power Radar Power Supply, Voice Activated Control System, and Combined Interrogator Transponder, all of which have since become growth areas for the organisation. Sunil also led teams working on some of HAL’s more ambitious projects, including the Active ESA Radar, the Automatic Flight Control System for the Light Combat Helicopter, and mission computers for helicopter and fighter platforms.
He was equally active in building institutional partnerships. Sunil pioneered collaborations with IIT Kanpur on datalinks and IIIT Hyderabad on voice recognition technologies, signalling an intent to embed academia into HAL’s development pipeline.
The shadow of the Tejas
Yet his tenure was not without turbulence. Two crashes of the Tejas light combat aircraft cast a shadow over the period. In the more serious incident, a Tejas crashed during a low-level aerobatic display at Al Maktoum International Airport in Dubai, killing the pilot. In a separate incident, another Tejas went down in Jaisalmer, though the pilot ejected safely. For a company staking its future on the Tejas as India’s indigenous fighter of choice, the accidents were damaging blows, raising questions about quality control and airworthiness that HAL will need to answer under its next leadership.
Sunil leaves behind a company at a pivotal moment: technologically ambitious, institutionally significant, and under intense scrutiny. Whoever takes the controls next inherits both the promise and the pressure.
