Senior executives at NDTV quit, company says putting new team in place

Group president Suparna Singh, chief strategy officer Arijit Singh and chief technology officer Kawaljit Singh Bedi exit firm

News network NDTV said on Friday senior executives had stepped down and it was putting up a fresh leadership team. In a disclosure to the stock exchanges, the company said group president Suparna Singh, chief strategy officer Arijit Singh and chief technology and product officer Kawaljit Singh Bedi had resigned.

The development comes close on the heels of the Adani group taking control of NDTV (New Delhi Television) with a near 65 per cent stake. Prannoy and Radhika Roy, who were founders-promoters of NDTV, last month sold most of their stake, retaining a minority five per cent shareholding in the company. They had also stepped down from the board of NDTV last month.

"The company is in the process of putting up a new leadership team which will set a fresh strategic direction and goals," NDTV said.

Separately, some media reports said that Sanjay Pugalia, who is on the board of NDTV, had written to employees, while announcing the senior-level exits, saying that the Adani Group was committed to transitioning the company into a new-age, global digital media organisation.

His views, said experts, echo what billionaire Gautam Adani, who is the chairman of the Adani group, had said in a recent interview to the Financial Times. He had said that he wanted to build a global news brand out of India.

"Why can’t you support one media house to become independent and have a global footprint? India does not have one single [outlet] to compare to Financial Times or Al Jazeera," Adani said in the interview dated November 25.

Among the high-profile exits at NDTV in the recent past include that of Ravish Kumar, who was senior executive editor at NDTV India, the Hindi channel of the news broadcaster.