The chairman and managing director of the Express Group, Viveck Goenka, has been unanimously elected chairman of the Press Trust of India (PTI) by the board of directors of the news agency following the 69th annual general meeting of the company on 7 September 2017 in New Delhi. Goenka, who was vice chairman of the news agency, replaced the outgoing chairman Riyadh Mathew, who is also a director of Malayala Manorama. The changeover takes place every year in true PTI tradition wherein the serving vice chairman is elected chairman after the current chairman has served his term in office. The PTI board of directors also elected the vice chairman during the AGM and this time they chose N Ravi, former editor-in-chief of The Hindu, for the post.
Goenka has earlier served as chairman of the news agency UNI (United News of India) as well as a council member of the ABC (Audit Bureau of Circulation). He has been one of the youngest past presidents of the INS (Indian Newspaper Society). A qualified engineer, he has served as a member of the Advertising Association, India Chapter. An avid student and champion of conservation, he is also a wildlife photographer whereby he captures his passion for nature conservation in his camera and contributes in his own way to sustainable development.
The new vice-chairman of PTI, Ravi succeeds Goenka, whose elevation to the post of chairman had left the post of vice chairman vacant. Ravi is a former editor-in-chief of The Hindu, and is also a director at Kasturi & Sons Ltd., which publishes The Hindu. He has previously served as chairman of PTI. His election to the post of vice chairman therefore paves the way for a second stint as chairman of India’s leading news agency next year. Ravi is an award-winning journalist and has had an illustrious career with The Hindu in both India and the United States, where he served as the Washington correspondent of this newspaper before he was made a deputy editor. He has a master’s degree in economics and a bachelor’s degree in law and has served as president of the Editors’ Guild of India. He had been a member of the National Security Advisory Board of the Government of India from 2006 to 2008.
PTI’s revenue in FY 2016-17 was Rs. 172.76 crore against Rs. 166.36 crore, which it generated in the preceding year, showing growth of Rs. 6.4 crore. Speaking at the AGM, outgoing chairman Mathew under whose chairmanship this growth was achieved, said, “PTI once again proved to be the pre-eminent news service in India with its fact-based and balanced reportage, fulfilling the news cooperative’s core commitment to its diverse subscribers.” In 2016, the PTI board had taken a major decision aimed at improving operations and increasing efficiency by creating separate and specific roles for the CEO and editor-in-chief, which was earlier combined under one post. Now the CEO’s role is to focus on corporate affairs, marketing and sales while the editor-in-chief focuses on content.
This article has inputs from PTI News, The Hindu and The Times of India.
