NDTV saga: Who are the three new directors on the board of RRPR Holding

Tuesday night events, which saw Radhika and Prannoy Roy resigning as directors from NDTV’s board, also saw three new directors being appointed: Sudipta Bhattacharya, Senthil Chengalvarayan and Sanjay Pugalia. Here’s what we know about the three new faces on the board of Radhika Roy Prannoy Roy (RRPR) Holding, an NDTV promoter entity.

Sudipta Bhattacharya

Sudipta Bhattacharya is the chief executive officer (CEO) of North America for the Adani group. He is also the chief technology officer of the group.

Prior to his current assignments at the group, Bhattacharya was the CEO of Adani Ports and SEZ and chief strategy officer for the group.

Before joining the Adani Group, he was the CEO of engineering and IT company Invensys’ software business. Invensys is now part of Schneider Electric. Before this, Bhattacharya was the senior vice-president of SAP’s supply chain management, manufacturing and engineering product portfolio.

He has also worked with the Tata group for 10 years, leading chemical plant operations, engineering projects and supply chain operations.

Sanjay Pugalia

Sanjay Pugalia is a veteran Indian journalist with over three decades of print and broadcast experience. Pugalia has been part of several news ventures in India. He launched and headed CNBC-Awaaz for 12 years.

Earlier, as news director, he set up Star News in Hindi, headed Zee News and was part of the founding team of Aaj Tak. Pugalia is currently the chief executive officer and editor-in-chief of AMG Media, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Adani Enterprises, which he joined in September 2021. He is also on the board of directors of Quintillion Business Media, where the Adani group picked up a 49 per cent stake in May this year.

Senthil Chengalvarayan

Senthil Chengalvarayan is a business journalist with over 35 years of experience, including as founding editor of CNBC-TV18 and editor-in-chief of Network 18’s business news room.

Like Pugalia, Chengalvarayan is also on the board of directors of Quintillion Business Media, where the Adani group has a 49 per cent stake.

Both Senthil and Pugalia are likely to be important drivers at NDTV in the future, as the Adani group slowly but steadily completes its acquisition plans at the news broadcaster.