NDTV
New Delhi Television Limited (NDTV) is
an Indian television media company
founded in 1988 by husband and wife
Prannoy Roy and Radhika Roy. NDTV is
an acronym for the original name of the
company, New Delhi Television.
New Delhi Television Limited
Type Public
Traded as BSE: 532529 , NSE: NDTV
Founded 1988
Founder Radhika Roy
Prannoy Roy
Headquarters New Delhi, India
Area served India
Key people Prannoy Roy (Co-chairperson)
Radhika Roy (Co-chairperson)
K. V. L. Narayan Rao (Executive
Vice-chairperson)
Number of 1,491 (2016)
employees
Website www.ndtv.com
Channels operating
Channels operating
Channels of NDTV Group are: [1]
NDTV 24x7 – 24-hour English news
channel.
NDTV India – 24-hour Hindi news
channel.
NDTV Profit – Business news channel.
NDTV Good Times – Lifestyle channel.
ATN NDTV 24x7
Notable personalities
Vikram A Chandra, Consulting Editor[2]
Sonia Singh, Editorial Director
Ravish Kumar, Editor of NDTV India
Rahul Narvekar, CEO of Indianroots
NDTV Ethnic Retail
Controversies
Allegation of corruption and
criminal conspiracy
On 20 January 1998 Central Bureau of
Investigation filed cases against New
Delhi Television (NDTV) managing
director Prannoy Roy, former director
general of Doordarshan R. Basu and five
other top officials of Doordarshan under
Section 120-B of the Indian Penal Code
(IPC) for criminal conspiracy and under
the Prevention of Corruption Act.
According to the Central Bureau of
Investigation (CBI) charge-sheet,
Doordarshan suffered a loss of over Rs
35.2 million due to the "undue favours"
shown to NDTV as its programme The
World This Week (TWTW) was put in 'A'
category instead of 'special A'
category.[3][4][5][6][7][8]
Radia tapes controversy
In November 2010, OPEN magazine
carried a story which reported transcripts
of some of the telephone conversations
of Nira Radia with senior journalists,
politicians, and corporate houses, many
of whom have denied the allegations.
The Central Bureau of Investigation has
announced that they have 5,851
recordings of phone conversations by
Radia, some of which outline Radia's
attempts to broker deals in relation to the
2G spectrum sale.[9] The tapes appear to
demonstrate how Radia attempted to use
some media persons including NDTV's
Barkha Dutt to influence the decision to
appoint A. Raja as telecom minister.[10]
She always denied her role in this
episode with stating her role as simply
error of judgment. Barkha Dutt is being
investigated by the CBI. Dutt left the
channel in January 2017.[11]
Allegation of tax fraud
NDTV, through its foreign subsidiaries, is
alleged to have violated Indian tax and
corporate laws.[12] NDTV has denied
these allegations.[13]
The Sunday Guardian ran a story which
exposed the NDTV's financial
misdemeanours and malpractices in
connivance with ICICI Bank.[14] provides
details of how NDTV's major
stakeholders raised funds by
misdeclaration of the value of shares in
NDTV. NDTV has denied the allegations
and the NDTV CEO replied[15] to the
Sunday Guardian along with the threat of
"criminal defamation". On 5th June 2017,
the House of Prannoy Roy was raided by
NIA and CBI.
On 19 November 2015 the ED served
₹2,030 crore (US$320 million) notice to
NDTV for alleged violations under the
FEMA act,[16] however the company said
it has been advised that the allegations
are not "legally tenable".[17]
The "Income Tax Appellate Tribunal"
(ITAT) has upheld an income tax
department finding that promoters of
NDTV used their own shell companies to
round-trip investments of ₹642 crore
(US$100 million) during 2009-10, making
them liable for recovery of tax and
penalty.[18]
Commonwealth Games
contract
On 5 August 2011 Comptroller and
Auditor General of India's report on XIX
Commonwealth Games was tabled in
Parliament of India. In section 14.4.2 of
the report, CAG alleged that while
awarding contracts worth ₹37.8 million
(US$590,000) for production and
broadcast of commercials to promote
CWG-2010 to NDTV & CNN-IBN, the
Commonwealth Games Organizing
Committee followed an arbitrary
approach. Proposals were considered in
an ad-hoc manner, as and when a
proposal was received; no form of
competitive tendering was adopted. The
CAG further said in its report that, "We
had no assurance about the
competitiveness of the rates quoted by
these channels and the need and
usefulness of these proposals. From
March 2010 to June 2010, the entire pre
games publicity and sponsorship
publicity was done only on NDTV & CNN-
IBN."[19][20][21]
Suit against TAM India
News broadcaster company sued
television audience measurement
company, TAM India and its global parent
firms for over a billion dollars in the
Supreme Court of New York, alleging
TAM of manipulating ratings in return for
bribes to its officials.[22]
One-day ban
On November 4, 2016, the Union Ministry
of Information and Broadcasting ordered
the channel to go off air on November 9
for allegedly divulging 'strategically
sensitive' details while covering
January's deadly attack on the Pathankot
air base.[23] Government scrapped their
decision on the ban for reasons not
made clear.
2008 loan case
On 5 June 2017, the CBI raided premises
of channel promoters Prannoy and
Radika Roy, accusing it of "causing an
alleged loss" to ICICI Bank of ₹48 crore
(US$7.5 million).[24] The complainant,
Sanjay Dutt, Director of Quantum
Securities Pvt. Ltd., alleged that the Roys
took a loan of around ₹350 crore
(US$55 million) from ICICI in 2008–09,
putting up their shareholdings in the
company at an inflated value as
collateral. He added that while the
amount was repaid the following year,
the accrued interest of ₹50 crore
(US$7.8 million) remained unpaid.[25] In
its response, NDTV denied any "default
on any loan to ICICI or any other bank",
while attaching a picture of the bank's
2009 letter that confirmed that the "entire
amount due," amounting to ₹375 crore
(US$58 million), had "been repaid in
full."[26] It added that, "No matter how
much the politicians attack us - We will
not give up the fight for freedom and the
independence of media in India."[27]
While the Minister of Information and
Broadcasting Venkaiah Naidu denied
involvement in the investigation adding
that "this government doesn't believe in
interfering", media outlets held the union
government responsible for breach of the
freedom of the press. Praveen Swami of
The Indian Express called the raids "a
defining moment", comparing them to
the Emergency, when the then prime
minister, Indira Gandhi imposed
censorship and reporting guidelines amid
other restrictions.[28] In its statement, the
Editors Guild of India said that it
"condemns any attempt to muzzle the
media and calls upon the CBI to follow
the due process of law and ensure there
is no interference in the free functioning
of news operations."[29] N. K. Singh, a
former joint director of the CBI, called it
unusual for the CBI to conduct a raid on a
media organization and said that that
scrutinizing the terms of a loan by a
private bank was also unorthodox.[24]
References
References
1. "NDTV - The Company" .
www.ndtv.com. Retrieved 2017-03-17.
2. "NDTV CEO Changes - The Economic
Times" . Retrieved 29 October 2016.
3. "NDTV and Prannoy Roy – Once Upon a
Time " Zoom Indian Media" .
Zoomindianmedia.wordpress.com. 14
February 2011. Retrieved 26 May 2012.
4. "How Zee Is Shooting Star | Saibal
Chatterjee" . Outlookindia.com. 22
September 1997. Retrieved 26 May 2012.
5. "Mandarins' Murdoch mission likely to
end up in smoke" . Expressindia.com. 9
July 1998. Retrieved 26 May 2012.
6. "Sorry" . Indianexpress.com. Retrieved
26 May 2012.
7. "www.outlookindia.com - How Zee Is
Shooting Star" . outlookindia.com.
Retrieved 16 September 2015.
8. "www.outlookindia.com - Star
Crossed" . Outlook. Retrieved
16 September 2015.
9. B S Arun. "Radia tapes: Scandal in the
media" . Deccanherald.com. Retrieved
26 May 2012.
10. "The Ratan Tata, Barkha Dutt & Other
Tapes - Nov 18,2010" . Outlook. Retrieved
16 September 2015.
11. "NDTV Statement On Barkha Dutt" .
12. "NDTV juggles funds, shares abroad,
avoids tax" . The Sunday Guardian. 5
December 2010. Retrieved 6 December
2010.
13.
http://video.indiannewsandviews.com/wa
tch_NDTV_Frauds_Book_Release_function
_at_the_Constitution_Club,_New_Delhi_on
_March_27,_2017?v=XFkd_zNSE6U
14. [http://www.sunday-
guardian.com/a/1082 "NDTV-ICICI loan
chicanery saved Roys
15. http://www.sunday-
guardian.com/a/1083
16. "ED serves Rs 2,030 crore notice on
NDTV for FEMA violations" . The Hindu.
20 November 2015.
17. "NDTV gets ED notice for alleged
FEMA violations" . The Indian Express. 20
November 2015.
18. "NDTV round-tripped Rs 642 crore via
shell companies in 2009-2010: Tribunal" .
The Times of India. 23 July 2017.
19. "CAG Report on XIX Commonwealth
Games" (PDF). Comptroller & Auditor
General of India (Pdf).
20. "CAG blames top media houses in
Commonwealth Games Scam" . News of
Delhi.
21. "Games contracts to media houses
arbitrary and biased: CAG" . India Today.
22. "NDTV says TV ratings manipulated" .
The Hindu. 1 August 2012.
23. "Editors say BAN violation of freedom
of media" . NDTV. 4 November 2016.
24. Berry, Ellen (5 June 2017). "Raids in
India Target Founders of News Outlet
Critical of Government" . The New York
Times. Retrieved 5 June 2017.
25. "First Information Report" (PDF).
Central Bureau of Investigation. cbi.nic.in.
2 June 2017. Retrieved 5 June 2017.
26. "The NDTV Saga and Indian
Journalism" . Anupamtimes. Retrieved
7 June 2017.
27. "Updated Statement From NDTV On
CBI Raids" . NDTV. 5 June 2017. Archived
from the original on 5 June 2017.
Retrieved 5 June 2017.
28. Safi, Michael (5 June 2017). "Indian
investigators raid premises linked to
NDTV founders" . The Guardian. Retrieved
5 June 2017.
29. "Editor's Guild condemns CBI raids on
NDTV's Prannoy Roy" . The Hindu. 5 June
2017. Retrieved 5 June 2017.
External links
Wikimedia Commons has media
related to NDTV.
Official website (Mobile )
Retrieved from
"https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?
title=NDTV&oldid=814527290"
Last edited 20 days ago by Space…
Content is available under CC BY-SA 3.0 unless
otherwise noted.
