MUMBAI: Mumbai Tak, the digital news platform from the India Today Group, successfully hosted its premier event, ‘Mumbai Tak Baithak’, yesterday in Mumbai. The event served as a dynamic platform for dialogue on Maharashtra’s political, social, and developmental landscape, bringing together an influential array of leaders, thinkers, and first-time legislators.
Delivering a significant policy update, Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis announced that the three-language formula outlined in the National Education Policy (NEP) will be implemented across the state. During his keynote interaction, Fadnavis also hinted at potential BJP strategies for upcoming municipal elections, stating that while the party may form alliances for the BMC elections, it may also contest independently in other municipal corporations.
The event featured a distinguished line-up of participants including deputy chief minister Eknath Shinde, senior leaders Balasaheb Thorat, Chhagan Bhujbal, Aditya Thackeray, and Bala Nandgaonkar, as well as a new generation of public representatives such as Sneha Dubey, Babasaheb Deshmukh, and Sana Malik. Further enriching the discussions, Padma Shri awardee and social activist Girish Prabhune, and renowned economist and public intellectual Dr. Narendra Jadhav, and the special public prosecutor, who has also been nominated as the member of Parliament by the President of India, Ujjwal Nikam shared their insights on governance, equity, and regional development.
Reflecting on the event’s impact, Milind Khandekar, managing editor of TAK Channels, stated “Mumbai Tak Baithak is our effort to spark meaningful conversations from Maharashtra’s heartland — connecting people, policy, and power through credible digital journalism.”
With a growing digital footprint of over 4.3 million subscribers and 800 million video views in FY 2024–25, Mumbai Tak continues to cement its position as one of Maharashtra’s most trusted digital news platforms.
The full conversation with Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis is available to view on YouTube.
MUMBAI: MP Tak, the digital-first news platform from the India Today Group, is hosting its flagship event ‘MP Tak Baithak’ today in Bhopal. The Baithak is a platform for meaningful dialogue that brings together some of the most prominent voices from Madhya Pradesh’s political and cultural landscape to engage in candid conversations around governance, development, and pressing regional issues.
The event features a distinguished lineup of speakers including Chief Minister Dr. Mohan Yadav, BJP State President Hemant Khandelwal, Urban Development Minister Kailash Vijayvargiya, Leader of Opposition Umang Singhar, Deputy Chief Minister Rajendra Shukla, and Minister of Sports & Cooperation Vishvas Sarang. Also joining the conversation are OBC & Minorities Minister Krishna Gaur, senior Congress leader Laxman Singh, Congress MLA Vikrant Bhuria, and Olympic bronze medalist in hockey Vivek Sagar. Adding a cultural dimension to the Baithak are renowned poets Jani Bairagi and Mahendra Madhur.
Commenting on the initiative, Milind Khandekar, Managing Editor of TAK Channels, said: “MP Tak Baithak reflects our commitment to amplifying voices from the heart of Madhya Pradesh. As a platform rooted in the state’s political and cultural fabric, we aim to facilitate conversations that matter — directly with the key stakeholders. The overwhelming support from our viewers encourages us to create more such spaces that connect policy with people and highlight local issues through credible digital journalism.”
MUMBAI: Mumbai Tak, the feisty digital arm of the India Today Group, is rolling out its big guns—quite literally—for a showstopper in Pune. The Jai Hind Utsav, set to light up the Modern Engineering College auditorium on 23 May, promises a high-octane mix of political firepower and lyrical soul.
From Maharashtra Navnirman Sena supremo Raj Thackeray to former army chief general Manoj Mukund Naravane , the line-up reads like a who’s who of India’s influence circuit. Add musical maestros Salil Kulkarni, Sandeep Khare, and Bhimrao Panchale into the mix, and you’ve got yourself a cultural cocktail ready to stir Pune awake.
“This event is a testimony to the popularity and the support that Mumbai Tak has received from its viewers. Through this endeavour, our aim is to strengthen connect with viewers and give them a different experience rich with cultural heritage of the state,” said Tak channels managing editor Milind Khandekar. “We’re weaving the cultural fabric of Maharashtra into an experience that viewers won’t forget.”
The entire extravaganza will be streamed live on www.mumbaitak.in, and across Facebook and YouTube—ensuring that no one misses the beats or the barbs.
Mumbai: Expanding its presence in the digital video space, TV Today Network has launched the TAK news app on the Google Play Store on Android and App Store on iOS.
The app will feature content in Hindi, Marathi, Gujarati. and Punjabi, and offer personalised content to users across 18 brand channels under categories such as news, crime, as well as regional. According to the network, a separate content studio will create exclusively digital video content for the TAK news app.
The app also has a short video feature called ‘Phatak’ to showcase shareable 30-second video bytes of the latest news stories. The feature is unique to the TAK app and will not be accessible on their YouTube channels. The network currently has a cumulative subscriber base of 45 million on its YouTube channels that garner nine billion video views annually. Users can access the content on the app without logging in as it tracks the device ID to create a profile of the user. The more content the user watches on the platform, the more customised his/her feed will become over time.
“Through this effort, we are trying to bring digital audiences to our own destination,” said TV Today Network chief operating officer (Tak channels) Vivek Gaur. “We believe there has to be a clear differentiation on what we do on our social platforms versus our presence on the TAK app. A differentiated content and engagement strategy is what will drive people to our platform.”
The ‘TAK’ app logo which used to look similar to Hindi news channel Aaj Tak was relaunched under the new umbrella to come across a unique digital offering. There is a lot of effort going into our content to make it relevant and give it longer shelf life,” said TV Today Network managing editor – Tak channels Milind Khandekar. This means we’re not just reporting the news but also explaining it. Our big differentiator is the ‘Phatak’ which is news in 30 seconds. These are well shot and well-produced videos which are not available on social media.”
Creativeland Asia’s design division CLA Design Lab created the master brand design and overall design architecture for the brand. “It is always exciting to build a brand from the ground up,” said Creativeland Asia founder and chairman Sajan Raj Kurup. “I personally worked closely with Vivek and his wonderful team on the conceptualisation and direction of this brand. After months of extensive collaborations between our design, strategy, communications and production team, I am excited to see the brand out there ready to take off.”
The recommendations under the ‘Phatak’ short video feature will be decided on the basis of recency and cohort-based recommendation much like other players in the short video space. When a user visits the website, he or she will only see new stories populating the page as content that has already been watched is deprioritised to keep the user experience on the app fresh.
TV Today Network has decided to go outside the Google Ad network and monetise the users on the TAK news app through bespoke advertising solutions to clients. Gaur noted, “If you show ads in a mundane and intrusive manner then people will think you’re like everyone else. Our advantage to advertisers is that we can offer them sharper audience segmentation based on audience cohorts like region, language. and preferences. That will allow us to scale and achieve profitability.”
According to a report by KPMG, digital video ad spend is expected to grow at 39 per cent CAGR between 2019-24. It accounts for a 30 per cent share of the total digital advertising spends and is expected to increase its share to 50 per cent by 2024.
NEW DELHI: The year 2020 saw a number of news outlets either going through a revamp, shutting down operations, or embarking on a path of vigorous growth. All this led to a substantial to and fro of personnel in the industry. Here’s the first part of the year-end series on people’s movements in the India’s news industry:
On new roads
The year saw a number of prominent names hopping channels and taking up new roles and responsibilities. While some moved within the industry, some veered off on alternate career paths. And there were some who entered the news world from completely different universes.
Senior journalist Nidhi Razdan decided to move on from NDTV and started afresh as an educator at Harvard University.
Some personal and professional news: after 21 years at NDTV, I am changing direction and moving on. Later this year, I start as an Associate Professor teaching journalism as part of Harvard University’s Faculty of Arts and Sciences 1/n
Senior journalist Bhupendra Chaubey, who was associated with CNN News18 for nearly 15 years, parted ways with the organisation in April this year to join Andhra Prabha Publications as group-editor-in-chief and CEO. He has shouldered the responsibility of leading the group’s foray in the world of broadcasting. He is currently managing 12 editions of the newspaper and the English language news channel India Ahead.
— bhupendra chaubey (@bhupendrachaube) July 29, 2020
A close aide of Chaubey from CNN News18, Sudip Mukhiya preceded his entry at India Ahead. He joined as group president – newsroom and editorial strategies. Senior journalist Jacob Mathew also came onboard as director news.
Amit Goel, who has earlier worked with print publications like The Economic Times and The Pioneer, came in as India Ahead president – national editorial affairs. Producer and filmmaker Arjun Pandey joined the team as president – sales, marketing and strategies. Broadcaster and publisher Sudha Sadanand came onboard as president – editorial affairs. A former senior editor from The Economic Times, Rishi Joshi was also hired by the channel.
Zee Entertainment executive cluster head – innovation studio & custom content Raktim Das joined TV9 Network as COO – Studio 9.
Another senior journalist, Ajay Kumar ended his association with News Nation as managing editor and went to India TV as a consulting editor. The channel also brought in DB Star – Dainik Bhaskar, Bhopal editor Anand Pandey as editor – research and planning. Further, it welcomed Jayprakash Singh back after a gap of two years as chief of bureau – Mumbai.
BBC India’s digital editor Milind Khandekar stepped down from his post after a short stint of one-and-a-half years and joined TV Today Network Ltd as managing editor of Tak Channels.
Milind Khandekar
TV9 Network, in line with its agenda to revamp its digital businesses, found the editor and business head for business content vertical in Rakesh Khar, who bid adieu to his company of six years, Network18. Additionally, the organisation also got on board Amit Tripathi, yet another resource from Network18, as its chief revenue officer. It also welcomed Zee Media Corporation’s former SVP Manish Seth as its EVP.
Earlier this year, Network18 (IBN7) deputy managing editor Sumit Awasthi exited the channel to join ABP Network as VP – news and production.
Zee Hindustan hired Shamsher Singh as its managing editor. He has worked with networks like TV Today, India TV and Republic Bharat in the past.
Sun TV Network got News18 Tamil Nadu’s M Gunasekaran as its new editor-in-chief. He was instrumental in commissioning the launch of News18 Tamil Nadu, right from setting up an office in Chennai to building up a robust team of top journalists and reporters.
Erstwhile India TV political editor Jayanta Ghoshal left the news outlet after a brief stint of one year and was appointed by the West Bengal government to liaise with the central government.
Jayanta Ghoshal
Sahara News Network group editor Manoj Manu stepped down to join India News Network as executive editor. Sunita Rajan left CNN as SVP -advertising sales to enter Bloomberg Media as MD for media sales and marketing in APAC. Rajesh Kalra moved on from the post of chief editor at Times Internet and joined Asianet News Media and Entertainment Pvt Ltd (AMEL) as executive chairman.
Times Now executive editor and head of output Vivek Narayan quit to head Network18’s regional language network in south India as the managing editor. India Today roped in senior journalist Prabhu Chawla as an editorial consultant for TVTN while he also continued his association with The New Indian Express.
PopXO’s former head of engineering, Piyush Yadav joined ScoopWhoop Media as head of technology. Warner Media’s former associate director – sales Pooja Madan went to Republic Media Network to take up the position of sales director – north & east.
Additionally, SonyLIV Sports head of monetisation Maruti Indoria joined Network 18 as business head for CricketNext in March this year. Zee Innovation Studio’s national vertical head Gaurav Mehra ended the association and flitted to TV9 Network as VP of its TV and digital convergence specialist unit TV9.
Disney India’s Pawan Sharma, who was the national head – revenue (branded content and Bindass), joined News18 Network as sales head – focus, Hindi, and language cluster.
Pawan Sharma
CNN News 18’s Utkarsh Anand moved to Hindustan Times as its legal editor.
On the other hand, Pradip Khatri left India TV as a general manager and head of marketing to join DigiVidyapeeth Learning.
Vikatan VP and vertical head – print Sunder Thiyagarajan, and head – business development and brand marketing Prakash Sankaranarayanan also quit this year. While Thiyagarajan co-founded The Idea Factory and is also acting as its COO, Sanjaranarayanan has yet to share his next move.
Mathrubhumi TV and Kappa TV CEO Mohan Nair too ended his over nine-year-long stint with the network this year. He hasn’t disclosed his plans for the future yet.
Mohan Nair
Before the shutting down of Mint, its editor-in-chief Vinay Kamat and managing editor Anil Padmanabhan resigned. They are yet to announce their next. Kamat was replaced by Sruthijith KK.
The Hindu Business Line editor R Srinivasan announced his retirement as well. The senior journalist was with the newspaper for the last nine years. He was earlier associated with media houses like BCCL, Business Standard, Ananda Bazar Patrika Limited, HT Media and Mail Today.
MUMBAI: Commenting on this development, Mr Avinash Pandey, COO, ABP News Network says – ‘ Mr Khandekar has been instrumental in shaping and strengthening the editorial structure at ANN during this illustrious association. His service has been indeed much valuable to the organization. It has been an honor working with a wonderful colleague like him all these past years. We wish him boundless success in all his future endeavors.’
Mr Milind Khandekar says-‘14 years is a long time and I remember this incredible journey very fondly.My association with ANN started with Hindi Channel and gradually transcended into digital and regional(Bengali,Marathi and Gujarati) channels of ANN as well.Overall,it has been a fulfilling and a remarkable experience’
With Mr Khandekar moving on, Mr.Rajnish Ahuja who’s currently the Associate Managing Editor,ABP News will be taking charge of ABP News editorial on an interim basis.
NEW DELHI: News Broadcasters Association’s (NBA) “News Broadcasting Standards (Disputes Redressal) Authority” which was formed earlier on 22 August, 2008 to enforce NBA’s code of ethics and broadcasting standards has begun operation from today 2 October.
Headed by former chief justice and former NHRC chairperson Justice J S Verma the nine member authority includes historian Ramachandra Guha, former Nasscom chief Kiran Karnik, JNU don Dipankar Gupta and economist and ex-under secretary general of UN, Nitin Desai who are four members from non-news television background while its editor-members are, India TV managing editor Vinod Kapri, Zee News group editor B V Rao, Star News managing editor Milind Khandekar and Times Now editor-in-chief Arnab Goswami.
At a press conference organised in Delhi, Verma said, “This is an initiative taken by the Indian news television industry and I am more than happy to be a part of this. It is good to see that the broadcasters have realised the need to come together to regulate the industry. We would try to resolve the grievances keeping the interest of the audiences and broadcasters.”
As per the self- regulation mechanism if any broadcaster, television journalist or news agency is found guilty of showing in appropriate content the authority can warn, admonish, censure, express disapproval against or impose a fine of Rs 1 lakh upon the broadcaster, television journalist or news agency.
The Authority can even recommend to the concerned authority for suspension, revocation of license, accreditation of such broadcaster, television journalist or news agency.
When asked about the amount of fined levied is too low for broadcasters, Verma replied, “it’s not a matter of charging Rs 1 lakh or one rupee as the fine; it’s the matter of self-respect. One time fine might not tarnish a broadcaster’s reputation but if it’s repeated then I am sure even the broadcaster will worry about its reputation being mottled both in the industry and in front of the viewers.”
The functioning of the authority is restricted to the members of NBA which has 14 broadcasters with 130 channels including regional channels like Sun TV, ETV and general English and Hindi news channels as its members.
Within fourteen days from the date of receipt of a complain, a copy of the complain alongwith a notice requiring the broadcaster to show cause why action should not be taken against it, will be sent to the broadcaster against whom the complaint has been made.
According to the Authority the maximum time that will be taken to resolve complains will be three months.
It is mandatory for the Authority to meet at least once in every two months. And the quorum of such meeting would consist of at least five members including the chairperson and two more members from non-news television background and two members from editors’ side of the table.
The summary of every enquiry would be available on NBA’s website which will be launched in another 10 days, through press release and in the annual report of NBA which will be published in various newspapers.
