News Broadcasting
BBC launches India special of ‘Talking Business’
MUMBAI: BBC World News’ flagship business discussion show Talking Business is in India this week for a special programme, the international news channel has announced.
Each week Talking Business brings together corporate leaders, global investors, top creatives, cutting-edge entrepreneurs and leading intellectuals to analyse current business issues and trends as well as discussing what is shaping the way we work, consume and live in the 21st century.
For this week’s special, which will be broadcast from the Narsee Monjee Institute of Management Studies (NMIMS) in Mumbai, BBC business presenter Yogita Limaye will be joined by a panel to discuss India’s skills gap, examining why, when a million people are coming into the Indian market place every month looking for work, employers say they are not able to find those with the skills they need.
The panel will include:
Vandan Shah, Managing Director of Sipra Engineers
Purvi Seth, Chief Executive of HR consultancy firm Shilputsi
Ninad Karpe, Chief Executive of Aptech – an IT training institute
Students from NMIMS will also join the discussion, which will cover different aspects of the skills gap such people looking for blue collar work.
Editor Simon Atkinson said, “Our business teams in Mumbai and Delhi work hard to tell the story of India’s economy – across the BBC’s business coverage on TV, radio and online and especially through our weekly programme India Business Report (IBR). So it’s fantastic to bring an edition of BBC World News’ flagship business talk show to India’s financial capital. As presenter of IBR, Yogita’s knowledge of the country’s business world will mean she can really delve into the issues and encourage a lively debate. It’s also great that by filming at NMIMS we will be able to hear what the potential business leaders of tomorrow think about the issues.”
Talking Business India will be broadcast on BBC World News on Friday, 30 October at 8 pm and repeated on Saturday 6 am and on Sunday at 6 pm.
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.
