News Broadcasting
Rajat Sharma is the new boss of DDCA
MUMBAI: Rajat Sharma, chairman and editor-in-chief of India TV is the new boss of Delhi and District Cricket Association (DDCA). He bagged 54.4 per cent of votes in his favour on 2 July 2018.
Sharma got a total of 1521 votes, 517 more than former test cricketer Madan Lal, who could only poll 1004 votes. The third candidate in the fray, advocate Vikas Singh, got 232 votes only.
Sharma’s group swept the elections winning all 12 seats to become the president.
For vice-presidential post, Rakesh Bansal, younger brother of former DDCA president Sneh Bansal bagged 1364 votes beating BCCI acting president CK Khanna’s wife Shashi by 278 votes. Shashi won 1086 votes in the VP elections. The defeat might prove to be the end of the road for Khanna in DDCA, where he enjoyed supreme power for nearly three decades.
Sharma and his panel’s candidature was backed by a political heavyweight from the ruling party with the IOA president Narinder Dhruv Batra throwing in all his might. Batra incidentally is a former DDCA treasurer.
“The moment Sharma got blessings from a senior cabinet minister, there was no chance in hell for any other candidate to win this election. What was not expected was a clean panel sweep. It will be good that Sharma will get a free hand to run the body. This also means that CK Khanna’s reign in DDCA ends unless he strikes some deal with Sharma,” a senior DDCA official told PTI as quoted by Insidesports.co.
With DDCA being the first among equals to go into elections after the Supreme Court appointed Lodha Committee suggested path-breaking structural reforms, the polling also witnessed abolition of proxy system with nearly 3000 voters turning up to cast their vote.
Among the other notable winners was former sports committee head Vinod Tihara, (1374 votes) who became secretary defeating nearest rival Manjeet Singh (998) by 376 votes.
The joint secretary’s post went to Rajan Manchanda (1402), younger brother of former treasurer Ravinder, who beat Pushpender Chauhan (953) by 449 votes. Pushpender is the younger brother of Chetan Chauhan.
For treasurer’s post, Om Prakash Sharma beat Deepak Singh by 1241 to 891 votes.
Coach Sanjay Bhardwaj was elected for the director’s post (first-class cricketer) while Renu Khanna became the woman director.
Notable among other directors were Apruv Jain, son of former media manager Ravi Jain, who polled 1286 votes, Alok Mittal, Nitin Gupta, Shiv Nandan Sharma and Nitin Agarwal.
News Broadcasting
Rajesh Sundaram joins NDTV Profit as senior editor, assignment
The 32-year newsroom veteran has launched channels on three continents and covered everything from 9/11 to South African television
MUMBAI: NDTV Profit has bolstered its newsroom with a hire who has done rather more than most. Rajesh Sundaram, a journalist with over three decades of editorial, managerial and consultative experience across India and international markets, joins as senior editor, assignment, tasked with sharpening the network’s newsgathering and real-time response.
Sundaram’s career reads like a tour of Indian media’s most formative moments. He began at Businessworld in 1994, moved to Zee News as bureau chief across Mumbai and Chennai, then joined NDTV in 2002 as part of its political bureau during a particularly febrile period in Indian politics. A stint as India correspondent for Al Jazeera International followed, where he covered key geopolitical developments and got his first serious taste of the global newsroom.
What sets Sundaram apart, however, is his serial channel-launching habit. At NewsX, he helped get the operation off the ground. At Headlines Today, part of the India Today Group, he served as editor. At News Nation, he helped launch the Hindi news channel and its digital ecosystem. He then crossed continents to lead the launch of ANN7 in South Africa as editor-in-chief, overseeing both television and digital. Back in India, he launched Tamil news channels News7 Tamil and Cauvery News, and later served as principal consultant for the launch of Marathi channel Lokshahi. Most recently, he helped build and lead the Press Trust of India’s video service and content studio, before stints consulting for Business Today and The Himalayan Times.
Rahul Kanwal, chief executive and editor-in-chief of NDTV, left little doubt about what Sundaram is expected to deliver. “The assignment desk is where a newsroom’s intent becomes action,” he said. “Rajesh brings a rare combination of field experience and leadership in building news operations at scale.”
Sundaram has reported from across India and the world, covering elections, civil conflicts, the aftermath of the 9/11 attacks and the 2008 US presidential election.
At NDTV Profit, he will lead the assignment desk, driving editorial coordination and real-time response across markets and breaking developments. For a business news network sharpening its focus on speed and multi-platform delivery, it has hired a man who has built newsrooms from scratch on three continents. The assignment desk is in good hands.
