MAM
NCLT says yes to Times Group proposal to tear itself in half
MUMBAI: India’s Times Group is splitting down the middle. On Wednesday (19 November), Mumbai’s National Company Law Tribunal blessed Bennett, Coleman & Company Limited’s plan to carve out everything that isn’t newspapers and hand it to a freshly minted entity called Times Horizon Private Limited.
The demerger, sanctioned by judicial member Sushil Mahadeorao Kochey and technical member Prabhat Kumar, draws a sharp line through the 112-year-old media giant. On one side: the storied publishing business behind the Times of India, under the watchful eye of Samir Jain. On the other: a sprawling digital and entertainment empire spanning television, internet platforms, radio, music, films, real-estate classifieds, fintech, edtech, sports, gaming, outdoor advertising, events and investments, under the guardianship of Vineet Jain. .
The rationale is stark. These businesses demand different skills, capital and risk appetites. Publishing newspapers requires one mindset; running streaming services quite another. The group’s board concluded in September that focused management teams would extract more value from each vertical than a single leadership juggling broadsheets and bandwidth.
Times Horizon was incorporated specifically to house what the tribunal documents call the “EIBME Business”—a catch-all for entertainment, internet, broadcasting, music and events. The acronym barely captures the breadth: major subsidiaries Times Internet and Entertainment Network India fall into this bucket, alongside ventures in advertising, brand capital and multiple asset classes.
The numbers tell the story of consolidation. BCCL’s paid-up capital stands at Rs 2.87 billion across 28.7 million equity shares held by just 11 shareholders. Times Horizon started as a shell with Rs 100,000 in capital. After the demerger, its shareholding will mirror BCCL’s—then immediately shift. A preferential share issue will hand a consortium of “specified shareholders” acting in concert a 50.05 per cent voting stake, with Sanmati Properties identified as the lead investor.
The tribunal dispensed with shareholder meetings after all 11 equity holders signed consent affidavits. Over 90 per cent of BCCL’s 3,833 unsecured creditors, owed Rs5.49bn, also approved. Neither company carries secured debt or preference shares—a clean surgical cut.
The appointed date is 1st April 2026, though it could arrive sooner. The tribunal ordered notices sent to the regional director, registrar of companies, income tax and GST authorities, the Competition Commission and the ministry of information and broadcasting. Regulatory authorities have 30 days to object; silence means consent.
BCCL must also disclose guarantees, contingent liabilities, insolvency proceedings, material litigation and letters of credit—the fine print that often trips up corporate restructurings. An affidavit of service is due within ten working days.
What emerges is a bet on divergence. The publishing business—print and digital news—stays with the Bennett Coleman name and legacy. Everything else gets a new vehicle, new capital and presumably new ambitions. For shareholders, it’s a choice: bet on journalism or ride the entertainment and tech wave. For a business born in 1913, it’s an admission that the future lies beyond the press room.
Brands
Tessolve lands a semiconductor veteran to drive its next big push
Ravi Kumar Chirugudu, who started his career at ISRO and has spent 35 years building chips and companies, joins the Bengaluru-based firm as president and chief operating officer
BENGALURU: Tessolve has never been shy about its ambitions. The Bengaluru-based engineering services firm already counts 18 of the world’s top 20 semiconductor companies among its clients, employs more than 3,500 engineers across 12 countries, and last year pocketed a $150m investment from TPG. Now it has hired the executive it believes can turn those assets into something bigger. Ravi Kumar Chirugudu, a 35-year semiconductor veteran who once built satellite payloads for ISRO and has since scaled engineering organisations across three continents, joins as president and chief operating officer, effective immediately.
THE MAN AND THE MANDATE
The appointment is, by any measure, a serious hire. Ravi Kumar Chirugudu comes to Tessolve after senior leadership stints at HCL Technologies, Altran and Wipro, where he managed large profit-and-loss portfolios and oversaw cross-regional teams. Over the course of his career, he has been instrumental in bringing more than 1,000 new products to market across the high-tech, energy and manufacturing verticals. Before the private sector claimed him, he began his working life as a scientist at the Indian Space Research Organisation, contributing to research and development in charge-coupled device technology and satellite payloads, a foundation that shaped everything that followed.
In his new role, he will lead Tessolve’s global growth strategy: expanding its engineering capabilities, deepening customer relationships and accelerating innovation across semiconductor and high-performance computing domains. The brief is broad, but the context is specific. Tessolve operates in the $550 billion global semiconductor market, and its recent moves, the acquisition of Germany’s Dream Chip Technologies and the TPG funding round, have sharpened both its reach and its expectations.
Srini Chinamilli, co-founder and chief executive of Tessolve, is characteristically direct about why Ravi Kumar Chirugudu was the choice:
“As we scale our global semiconductor and system engineering capabilities, Ravi’s appointment marks an important step forward. As global semiconductor demand continues to accelerate across industries, it is creating significant opportunities across the semiconductor lifecycle, from design, packaging, validation and systems integration. Ravi’s deep knowledge and leadership in this ecosystem brings the right mix of industry expertise, customer connect and execution capability, which will play a key role in strengthening our position as a trusted global engineering partner and reinforcing our market leadership.”
THE NEW ARRIVAL SPEAKS
Ravi Kumar Chirugudu, for his part, frames the move in terms of timing and culture, two factors that veteran executives tend to weigh as heavily as title or compensation:
“I am happy to join Tessolve at a time when the industry is rapidly evolving towards more complex, AI-driven systems. What stands out to me is its strong people-first culture and its commitment to bringing value to its customers. The strength of its global team, combined with its deep expertise in semiconductor innovation and next-generation product engineering, creates a solid foundation to build differentiated, scalable solutions. I look forward to working closely with the team to drive strategic growth and strengthen its role in shaping the global semiconductor ecosystem.”
The reference to AI-driven systems is not incidental. The semiconductor industry is in the midst of a structural reshaping, driven by the insatiable compute demands of artificial intelligence. For engineering services firms like Tessolve, which offers end-to-end capabilities from silicon design to packaged parts and invests in high-performance computing, high-speed interfaces, photonics and 5G, the moment is both an opportunity and a test. The company says it is well positioned to capture the next wave of industry growth. Ravi Kumar Chirugudu is now the person who has to prove it.
He came in from outer space, literally, and spent three decades learning how the semiconductor industry works from the inside out. Now Tessolve is betting that accumulated knowledge can help it cross the next frontier. In the $550 billion global chip market, the gap between ambition and execution is measured in engineering hours and leadership quality. Tessolve has just gone shopping for both.
