News Broadcasting
Robin Bhatt re-elected president of the Screenwriters’ Association
New Delhi: Film writer Robin Bhatt was unanimously elected as the president of the Screenwriters’ Association (SWA) for the second consecutive term, here on Monday.
Bhatt debuted as a writer in Bollywood with the movie Aashiqui in 1990 and has penned the screenplay for over 60 films in his 30-year-long career, which includes blockbusters like Koi Mil Gaya, Baazigar, Omkara and Krishh. He will remain the president of the association for the next two years.
The 64th annual general body election meeting of the SWA was conducted virtually amid the Covid2019 restrictions on Sunday, in the presence of the office-bearers, scrutiny committee members, election officer, and other SWA members. Unique e-voting links were sent to all the registered members. The regular/life members and associate members voted online for the 21 posts of the executive committee, and three posts of the executive committee (associate) respectively.
Office bearers elected unopposed for the term 2021-23 are:
Robin Bhatt- president
Preeti Mamgain- vice president
Sanjay Chouhan- vice president
Zaman Habib- general secretary
Danish Javed – treasurer
Satyam Tripathy- joint secretary
Manisha Korde- joint secretary
The new members of the executive committee include writers Abhijeet Deshpande, Abhiruchi Chand, Anjum Rajabali, Debashish Irengbam, Dhananjay Kumar, Hitesh Kewalya, Hussain Haidry, Mitesh Shah, Nikhil Vyas, Puneet Sharma, Rajesh Dubey, Sagar Pandya, Saiwyn Quadras, Saket Chaudhary, Sameer Javed Siddiqi, Sanyuktha Chawla Shaikh, Satyanshu Singh, Shailender Singh Sodhi (Shellee), Sumit Arora, Sweksha Bhagat, and Vinod Ranganath.
Deepanjan Roy, Gaurav Patki, and Persis Chirag Sodawaterwalla were elected as the associate members of the executive committee.
A trade union of screenwriters and lyricists who work for films, TV and digital media in India, SWA completed 60 years of its incorporation in 2020. It also includes authors, novelists, playwrights, journalists who aspire to diversify or join full-time the mediums of films, TV, or digital entertainment.
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.
