News Broadcasting
Power suits and boardroom buzz as IBLA turns 21 in Mumbai
MUMBAI: When corner offices meet centre stage, the spotlight naturally shifts to leadership and Mumbai is gearing up for exactly that. CNBC-TV18 is set to host the 21st edition of the India Business Leader Awards (IBLA) on January 10, 2026, bringing together India’s most influential corporate leaders and policymakers for one of the country’s most closely watched business evenings.
The high-profile ceremony will be graced by Amit Shah, union home minister, as chief guest. Also expected to attend are Piyush Goyal, union minister of commerce and industry, Devendra Fadnavis, Maharashtra chief minister, and Eknath Shinde, deputy chief minister of Maharashtra.
Now in its third decade, IBLA 2026 will honour leaders driving enterprise growth, national progress, and India’s expanding influence on the global economic stage. Over the years, the awards have evolved into a bellwether for leadership excellence, spotlighting ambition, innovation, and resilience across industries.
The evening is expected to see one of the largest gatherings of India Inc’s powerhouses, including Mukesh Ambani, Noel Tata, N. Chandrasekaran, Kumar Mangalam Birla, Sunil Bharti Mittal, and Sajjan Jindal, a roll call that underlines IBLA’s standing as one of India’s most prestigious business platforms.
Setting the tone for the year ahead, the 21st edition positions IBLA as India’s biggest business honours night, uniting industrialists, global CEOs, and senior policymakers under one roof to reflect on leadership that builds beyond balance sheets and borders.
The winners are selected through a rigorous and transparent jury process, ensuring credibility and depth in recognising enterprise excellence. This year’s jury is chaired by Kumar Mangalam Birla, and features senior leaders cutting across banking, technology, healthcare, law, and global business. The panel includes Challa Sreenivasulu Setty, C Vijayakumar, Preetha Reddy, Arundhati Bhattacharya, Dilip Shanghvi, Zia J. Mody, P D Singh, and Tarun Garg.
Presented by Standard Chartered, the 21st edition of the CNBC-TV18 India Business Leader Awards continues a legacy of celebrating leaders who think long-term, act decisively, and help shape India’s global success story, one boardroom decision at a time.
News Broadcasting
News TV viewership jumps 33 per cent as West Asia war draws audiences
BARC Week 8 data shows news share rising to 8 per cent despite T20 World Cup
NEW DELHI: Even as individual television news channel ratings remain under a temporary pause, the genre itself is seeing a clear surge in audience attention.
According to the latest data from Broadcast Audience Research Council India, television news recorded a 33 per cent jump in genre share in Week 8 of 2026, covering February 28 to March 6.
The news genre accounted for 8 per cent of total television viewership during the week, up from 6 per cent the previous week. The spike in attention coincided with escalating geopolitical tensions involving the United States, Israel and Iran, which have kept global headlines firmly fixed on West Asia.
The rise is notable because it came at a time when cricket was dominating television screens. The high-stakes stages of the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup, including the Super 8 fixtures and semi-finals, were being broadcast during the same period.
Despite the cricket frenzy, viewers appeared to be toggling between sport and global affairs, boosting the overall share of news programming.
The surge in genre share comes even as the government has enforced a one-month pause on publishing ratings for individual news channels. The move followed regulatory scrutiny of the television ratings ecosystem.
While channel-level rankings remain temporarily out of sight, the genre-level data suggests that when global tensions escalate, audiences continue to turn to television news for real-time updates.
