News Broadcasting
Subhash Chandra’s ASC Enterprises gets new chief in Punit Goenka
One more piece of the big picture that media mogul Subhash Chandra has envisioned for his group of companies has been fit into its slot. Elder son Punit Goenka, who has been groomed for the job, formally takes over as group president & CEO of ASC Enterprises Limited (ASCEL) Group of Companies effective 1 February.
Current CEO Jai Singh, who oversaw the building of the new ASC as a holding company for multiple businesses, steps down at close of business tomorrow. Singh will continue to be on the board of Agrani Satellite Services Limited (ASSL) in an advisory role but it will be Goenka, currently senior V-P business development, who will be running things.
Punit Goenka takes over at a time when Chandra’s long in gestation Agrani satellite project is all set to finally kick off with, according to Singh, financial closure just weeks away. Singh sees 18 months as the lead time required for the satellite to be up and operational once closure comes through.
Announcing the change, Chandra “expressed his regret at Jai Singh’s decision to step down in order to return to UK to spend more time with his family, but said that he understood the need. Chandra thanked Jai Singh for his leadership role in and contributions to the building of the new and expressed satisfaction that his advice and guidance will continue to be available,” an official release states.
Jai Singh said that it had been his privilege to have worked over the last 41 months with Chandra and the ASC Team in making the new ASCEL. The new, recast ASCEL as a holding Company has given birth to three companies – Agrani Convergence Ltd, rolling out Agrani Switch technology retail stores with 12 stores already in operation; Agrani Wireless Services Ltd which, with the acquisition of four operating public mobile radio trunking services (PMRTS) companies within the group in 2001, now has India’s largest PMRTS operations; and Agrani Satellite at the threshold of transitioning into its implementation phase.
In addition, during this period Chandra, through Agrani Holdings (Mauritius) Limited, also partnered Craig McCaw, the US Wireless Pioneer, in New ICO.
With top class basic teams and leadership already in place in ASC and its enterprises, which are only going to get stronger with time, Jai Singh said it was a “convenient time for him as well as ASC for him to step down in order to return to his family in the UK.”
Punit Goenka began his career in 1993 with the Essel Group, he has held various senior full-time positions in other Group Companies. Since December 1997, he has been involved in ASCEL, initially as V-P, co-ordination and operations.
Punit Goenka takes the reins at ASCEL exactly five months after Chandra’s younger son Amit Goenka took over as MD of Zee Interactive Learning Systems Limited on 1 September 2001. Amit Goenka took over from Uma Ganesh who resigned from ZILS, after steering the company for a few years.
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.
