News Broadcasting
VLCC’s Vandana Luthra invests in NDTV’s Smartcooky.com
MUMBAI: VLCC founder Vandana Luthra has invested an undisclosed amount in NDTV’s e-commerce platform Smartcooky.com.
The company has previously raised funds from multiple investors, which values the startup at $12 million.
The platform will sell healthy foods and personal care products across the country and is based on the network’s current food website,www.food.ndtv.com. The funding for the platform, which claims to have over three million unique visitors a month, has come through NDTV’s subsidiary SmartCooky Internet Limited.
The new content site will help in making healthy choices in the daily life by offering a well chosen selection of quality products.
Speaking on the investment, NDTV Group executive co-chairperson Dr. Prannoy Roy said, “We are delighted to have Mrs. Vandana Luthra, a pioneer in the field of wellness, as an investor in Smartcooky. We see this alliance as a strategic one, where both parties are bound to gain.”
On this new deal, Smartcooky director Seema Chandra added, “We are very pleased to have Mrs. Luthra as our investor, as she brings on board a wealth of knowledge about the well ness space from a global perspective and would give SmartCooky a strategic edge in this high growth market. She will join the other marquee investors on Smartcooky and mentor the business as we move a long.”
Luthra said, “The health and wellness industry is growing rapidly and is very dynamic. Having been in the industry for 26 years, I believe that there is a need for such a platform, which can inform on and deliver quality health and wellness products to consumers and further grow the market. I look forward to working with the Smartcooky team and wish them the very best.”
“Baseline is delighted to facilitate Mrs. Vandana Luthra’s association with the Smartcooky venture of NDTV. Mrs. Luthra has revolutionised the concept of wellness in our country and with her coming on board of this exciting new venture of NDTV, it will surely be a great symbiotic relationship between them,” voiced NDTV’s online wedding market Baseline Ventures MD Tuhin Mishra.
Smartcooky’s other investors include Google VP and MD South East Asia and India Rajan Anandan, Genpact former president and CEO Pramod Bhasin, Manipal Group Education chairman Siddarth Pai and Unilever executive board member Manvinder Singh Banga.
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.
