News Broadcasting
Sesame Workshop to set up NGO in India
NEW DELHI: In order to develop strategies and partnerships that ensure Galli Galli Sim Sim – an alliance between Turner India and Sesame Workshop – delivers, Sesame Workshop will be forming a non-governmental organization (NGO) based in New Delhi.
In addition, the Workshop has named Sashwati Banerjee to become Executive director of the NGO once it is established, while Shari Rosenfeld, vice-president, developing and emerging markets, Sesame Workshop, will oversee it.
Galli Galli Sim Sim’s mission is to educate and engage pre-school children throughout India and is a joint effort of Workshop and Time Warner company Turner India, which has contributed corporate social responsibility funds toward the establishment of the NGO.
The India office will drive Galli Galli Sim Sim’s outreach projects and manage its network of collaborative partnerships with other NGOs, funding partners, consumers, government agencies, educational institutions, broadcasters, and production team members.
“Sashwati, with over 15 years of experience in creative and management positions is deeply committed to children’s and women’s rights issues,” said Rosenfeld in a statement today.
“We are thrilled that she will be joining our team to lend her expertise in raising the profile of Galli Galli Sim Sim, an initiative aimed at promoting joyful learning of basic life skills for India’s young children and celebrating the diversity that is a part of their every day lives,” she added.
Galli Galli Sim Sim is a broad-based, multi-platform educational Initiative for young Indian children. A television show of the same name will debut later this year (the date being bandied around is 15 August) on India’s leading kids’ channels, Cartoon Network and Pogo.
The outreach campaign will extend the educational impact of the show by reaching out particularly to underprivileged children and the adults who care for them, through materials and programs in various media.
Congratulating Banerjee on her appointment, Soumitra Saha, senior VP, regional advertising sales and marketing, Turner Entertainment Networks Asia and project director, Sesame India, said, “With her Experience and well-honed skill set in the niche segment of social sector, Sashwati Banerjee is well-positioned to spearhead and successfully extend the long term educational objectives of Galli Galli Sim Sim to reach millions of young kids through the specially designed outreach campaign.”
Most recently, Banerjee was the programme director and communications Advisor with Abt Associates, for the private sector partnership One Project, funded globally by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID).
Prior to this position, Banerjee worked with the leading communications agency Ogilvy & Mather, where she was instrumental in setting up their healthcare division. In her capacity as the Business Manager, she designed and led successful campaigns for her clients in the pharmaceutical
industry.
Sesame Workshop is a US-based nonprofit educational organization making a meaningful difference in the lives of children around the world. Founded in 1968, the Workshop changed television forever with the legendary Sesame Street.
Today, the Workshop continues to innovate on behalf of children in 120 countries, using its proprietary research methodology to ensure its programs and products are engaging and enriching. Sesame Workshop is behind award-winning programs like Dragon Tales, Sagwa, The Chinese Siamese Cat, Pinky Dinky Doo and groundbreaking multimedia productions in South Africa, Egypt and Russia.
News Broadcasting
Senior media executive Madhu Soman exits Zee Media
Former Reuters and Bloomberg leader says he leaves with “no regrets” after brief stint at WION and Zee Business
NOIDA: Madhu Soman, a veteran of global newsrooms and media sales floors, has stepped away from Zee Media Corporation after a short stint steering business strategy for WION and Zee Business.
In a reflective LinkedIn note marking his departure, Soman said his time within the network’s corridors was always likely to be brief. “Some chapters close faster than expected,” he wrote, signalling the end of a nearly two-year spell in which he oversaw both editorial partnerships and commercial strategy.
Soman joined Zee Media in 2022 after more than a decade abroad with Reuters and Bloomberg, returning to India to take on the role of chief business officer for WION and Zee Business. His mandate was ambitious: bridge the newsroom and the revenue desk while expanding digital and broadcast reach.
During the stint, Zee Business reached break-even for the first time since its launch in 2005, while WION refreshed programming and strengthened its digital footprint across platforms such as YouTube and Facebook.
But Soman suggested the cultural fit proved uneasy. Describing himself as a “cultural misfit”, he hinted at deeper tensions between editorial instincts shaped in global newsrooms and the realities of India’s television news ecosystem.
Before joining Zee, Soman spent more than seven years at Bloomberg in Hong Kong as head of broadcast sales for Asia-Pacific, expanding the company’s news syndication business across several markets. Earlier, he held senior editorial roles at Reuters, overseeing online strategy in India and managing Reuters Video Services from London.
His career began in television and wire reporting, including a stint with ANI during the 1999 Kargil conflict, before moving into digital publishing as India’s internet media landscape took shape.
Now, after nearly three decades in broadcast and digital media, Soman is leaving Delhi NCR and returning to his hometown, Trivandrum.
Exhausted, he admits. But unbowed. And with one quiet line that sums up the journey: he didn’t sell his soul — because some things, after all, are not for sale.
