News Broadcasting
ET Now concludes the 9th season of Leaders of Tomorrow Awards and Conclave
Mumbai: ET Now has recently concluded the ninth season of ‘Leaders of Tomorrow Awards and Conclave’ which celebrates the success stories of India’s most innovative and resilient MSMEs and start-ups. This year’s event was driven by the theme ’Survive. Revive. Thrive’.
The event witnessed a distinguished line-up of speakers including principal economic advisor to GoI, Sanjeev Sanyal; IDFC First Bank MD and CEO V Vaidyanathan; BSE MD and CEO Ashish Chauhan, and HSBC India former country head Naina Lal Kidwai amongst others, who discussed the challenges faced by the small businesses and the way forward for India’s small enterprises and start-ups.
The distinguished jury of industry luminaries included Naina Lal Kidwai; Mahindra & Mahindra former MD Pawan Goenka; BSE head of SME Ajay Thakur; True Beacon & Zerodha co-founder and CIO Nikhil Kamath; Vinati Organics MD Vinati Saraf Mutreja; Growthstory investor partner and serial entrepreneur K Ganesh; Persistent Systems chairman Anand Deshpande; ASSOCHAM president and TCI MD Vineet Agarwal, and JBM Group vice-chairman Nishant Arya.
The event culminated in an exciting finale wherein the best MSMEs and startups were awarded. EF Polymer was named ‘Start-Up Entrepreneur of the Year’ and Keetronics India clinched ‘MSME Entrepreneur of the Year’.
“ET Now has been championing India’s growth story with a focused purpose of helping Indians rise with India. This mission reflects in our flagship property, Leaders of Tomorrow that empowers, enables and celebrates the spirit of small businesses and start-ups that are together powering the rise of a strong new India,” said Times Network MD and CEO MK Anand. “It is heartening to witness stories of several enterprising small businesses who not only showed resilience but rose through the adversities to innovate, reimagine and reinvent during the turbulent past two years. I firmly believe that Leaders of Tomorrow will continue to inspire more and more Indians to take the plunge and create new stories of entrepreneurial success.”
“The Indian economy has bounced back after the first and second wave because the underlying human consumption is very strong in India,” said IDFC First Bank’s V Vaidyanathan. “All the major indicators of the economy – GDP, house sales, car and two-wheeler sales, and FMCG products’ consumption have been marking an upward trend. The power of an economy lies in its credit. The Indian banking industry’s current outstanding total credit is over 120 lakh crores, out of which about 50 lakh crore is for entrepreneurs. After 75 years, small entrepreneur credit is growing by 25-30 per cent per year. SMEs are being benefited tremendously by the power of leverage, which was earlier reserved for large corporations.”
Highlighting the need for entrepreneurs to shift to an organised environment from an unorganised one, he said, “Migration from unorganised to organised is the need of the hour. The Indian retail industry or kirana market is a trillion-dollar market, out of which 80-84 per cent is unorganised and only four per cent is online. Every industry is now becoming organised, offline to online. For entrepreneurs, this is an opportunity to ride the new bandwagon and not just be spectators. The leaders of tomorrow need to have a digital play.”
Sanjeev Sanyal stated, “As the Indian economy revives post-pandemic, we observed that the impact in the second wave was much lesser as compared to the first wave. Things are stabilising and industries are opening up now and we realise that demand is not a constraint in India. Globally, this is a serious issue, but India has been able to overcome this as our fiscal resources are strong. Our supply sector reforms are unparalleled. During the first wave, we focused on framework reforms like GST, Aadhar, labour reforms, and farm laws, however, the second wave reforms are more sectoral in nature like deregulation, monetisation, and privatisation of industries.”
Talking about the third wave reforms which are currently in the pipeline, Sanyal further said, “Our thrust during the third wave reforms would be to get the Indian state to do what it should be doing which includes, delivery of justice, enforcement of contract, and upgradation of municipal services. We plan to give access to world-class infrastructure to poorer sections of the society to foster innovations. I do not believe in rigid planning, rather focus on growth strategy that is based on flexibility and resilience. One big example of this is ‘Atmanirbhar Bharat’ which focuses on leveraging our inner strengths. We as a nation need to give ourselves enough credit. Today, we delivered over 20 million Covid-19 jabs and I feel this is incredible, we have the capacity to deliver at this high level.”
News Broadcasting
Network18 Q4 revenue grows 9.7 per cent, EBITDA at Rs 30 crore
PAT improves to Rs 306.6 crore, margins steady amid cost pressures.
MUMBAI: Not all news is breaking, some of it is quietly improving. Network18 Media & Investments Limited appears to be doing just that, tightening losses and stabilising margins even as costs continue to weigh on the business. For FY26, the company reported revenue from operations of Rs 1,955.1 crore, up from Rs 1,896.2 crore in FY25, signalling modest top-line growth in a challenging media environment. Total income stood at Rs 1,978.2 crore, compared to Rs 1,913 crore a year earlier.
Profit after tax came in at Rs 306.6 crore for the year, a sharp turnaround from Rs 3,225.4 crore in FY25, largely reflecting the absence of large exceptional items that had inflated the previous year’s numbers. On a more comparable basis, the company’s operating performance showed signs of gradual stabilisation.
However, the quarterly picture remained under pressure. For the March quarter, Network18 reported a loss of Rs 53.1 crore, narrower than the Rs 98.1 crore loss in the same period last year, but still indicative of ongoing cost challenges.
Expenses continued to track high. Total expenses for FY26 stood at Rs 2,235.7 crore, up from Rs 2,197.8 crore in FY25. Key cost heads included operational expenses of Rs 765.9 crore, employee benefits of Rs 475.9 crore, and marketing, distribution and promotional spends of Rs 427.1 crore, underlining the continued investment required to sustain reach and engagement.
At an operating level, margins remained under strain. Operating margin stood at 2.33 per cent for FY26, marginally higher than 1.77 per cent in FY25, while net profit margin remained negative at -13.02 per cent, though improved from -14.89 per cent.
On the balance sheet, total assets rose to Rs 8,957.6 crore as of 31 March 2026, from Rs 8,317.5 crore a year earlier. Equity strengthened to Rs 4,958.7 crore, while borrowings increased to Rs 3,112.8 crore, reflecting a higher reliance on debt to support operations.
Cash flows told a mixed story. While financing activities generated Rs 83.9 crore, operating cash flow remained negative at Rs -24 crore, highlighting ongoing pressure on core cash generation. Cash and cash equivalents, however, improved to Rs 33.9 crore from Rs 1.8 crore.
The numbers point to a company in transition growing revenues, trimming losses, but still grappling with structural cost pressures. In a sector where scale often comes at a price, Network18 seems to be inching towards balance, one quarter at a time.
