NEW DELHI: The BBC has appointed Sanjeev Srivastava, currently India Business and Western India correspondent as its new India correspondent. Srivastava has been covering India in different capacities for the BBC for the last 10 years.
Starting off with the Hindi Service in India and later the World Service in London, Srivastava started the BBC’s first Mumbai Bureau reporting across BBC television and Radio services in English, Hindi and Urdu. His most recent work includes the first exclusive interview with Amitabh Bachchan before his 60th birthday and the first television interview with film star Salman Khan after he came out of jail. Srivastava, says an official release, has travelled extensively all over western Indian especially Gujarat. Prior to joining the BBC, Sanjeev worked with the Times of India and Indian Express.
Sanjeev will be joining the South Asia Bureau in Delhi in March. The BBC’s South Asia Bureau Editor Paul Danahar said “Sanjeev Srivastava is one of India’s respected correspondents. His experience in radio, television and in several languages makes him an ideal person to take up this new position. I was very keen that he should come and join our South Asia team. The BBC has the biggest news operation of any foreign broadcaster in the region so it was important that a high profile posting like India correspondent was filled with someone of Sanjeev’s maturity and experience. The BBC operation in India has been constantly ahead of the pack since 9/11 and Sanjeev, along side our South Asia correspondents Adam Mynott and Jill McGivering, will maintain that track record.”
The BBC has been expanding its South Asia news operation over recent months because of the growing interest in the region from its global audiences. This is driven, in part, by a surge in new audiences in the United States where BBC World TV is now in 86 per cent of American homes, the release says.