News Broadcasting
CNN-IBN, Thums Up and Being Human presents VEER Season 2
MUMBAI: In an effort to unleash the inner potential of people with disabilities and provide them the best employment opportunities, CNN-IBN is back with its one-of-its-kind initiative ‘VEER Season 2’ in partnership with Thums Up, Being Human and American India Foundation. The show aspires to exhort and educate the citizens of India to play the role of an enabler and make people with disability discern their true potential.
Started from 24th September 2015, VEER Season 2 is a campaign of strength and self-belief to generate awareness and advocate for inclusivity, accessibility and employability of people with disabilities (PwDs). After receiving an overwhelming response for its first season, VEER in its second edition aims to drive an amount of INR 2 crores for training 2000 PwDs.
In this phase of the campaign, CNN-IBN will also be associated with, the Indian government’s Department of Social Justice and Empowerment and Hans Foundation, an NGO operating in the area of empowering marginalised sector in disability space, to provide skill for training people with disabilities (PwDs). The government body and NGO, both will eminently work with the channel to train and employ the PwDs.
Speaking about the campaign, Mr. Radhakrishnan Nair, Managing Editor, CNN-IBN, said, “We are grateful to receive the support from Thums Up, Being Human and American India Foundation for the campaign. It is our pleasure to work on such an innovative program and we hope to receive an overwhelming response from the audience.”
Debabrata Mukherjee, Vice-President Marketing and Commercial, Coca-Cola India, said, “The Thums Up philosophy of being passionate and strong is something that drives this program. Through VEER, we want to encourage all the differently abled to unleash their potential, be strong and overcome the barriers they face. We are happy with the achievements of the program in its first year and are excited about the milestones being set for the second phase, where our endeavour will be to accelerate the pace and double the deliverables of the first year.
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.
