PTI Board Of Directors

N. Ravi is the Chairman of the Board of Press Trust of India, the country’s premier news agency. A former Editor-in-Chief of The Hindu, he is currently the Publisher of The Hindu Group of Newspapers. He was President of the Editors Guild of India and Chairman of the India Chapter of the International Press Institute. Mr Ravi has a Master’s degree in economics and a degree in law. He has won several academic awards including a gold medal in constitutional and international law. He joined The Hindu in 1972 as a reporter and moved up to the post of the newspaper’s Editor-in-Chief, which he held from October 2013 to January 2015

Vijay Kumar Chopra is the Vice Chairman of the Board of Press Trust of India. He is the Editor-in-Chief and Publisher of the Hind Samachar Group of Newspapers. He is also Chairman-cum-Managing Director of the company since 1984. A graduate from the DAV College in Jalandhar, Mr Chopra took training in printing technology in Leipzig, Germany. He also underwent a newspaper management course at the Thompson Foundation in UK. Mr Chopra has worked extensively for the underprivileged section of the society and instituted several funds for them. Mr Chopra is a Member of the Editors Guild of India, former President of the Indian Newspaper Society and past Member of the Press Council of India. He has also served as Chairman on the Board of Press Trust of India.

Aveek Sarkar is a Director on the Board of Press Trust of India. He is the Editor Emeritus and Vice Chairman of the Ananda Bazar Group of Publications and Chairman, Ananda News Network (ABP TV Group) and Chief Editor, Fortune India. Mr Sarkar started training as a journalist while he was a student, just out of school. Once he had finished his graduation from the University of Calcutta he went to Britain where he was tutored by the legendary Harold Evans, then the Editor of The Sunday Times. As the Chief Editor of the Ananda Bazar Group, Mr Sarkar was the moving force behind the transformation of the group’s publications. Mr Sarkar is a man of rich and varied interests. Books, food, wine and art are his four principal loves.

M P Veerendra Kumar is a Director on the Board of Press Trust of India. He is CMD of the Mathrubhumi group. Inducted as a socialist by Jayaprakash Narayan, he was inspired by Ram Manohar Lohia. He served in the Cabinets of Deve Gowda and I K Gujral. He is currently a Member of Parliament and serves as a lawmaker in the Rajya Sabha. An MBA from the Cincinnati University, Mr Kumar has written 21 books. He is a former President of the Indian Newspaper Society, a Member of the International Press Institute and an Executive Committee Member of the World Association of Newspapers. He has also served as Chairman on the Board of Press Trust of India.

Dr R Lakshmipathy is a Director on the Board of Press Trust of India. He is the Joint Managing Editor of national Tamil daily “Dinamalar”. Dr Lakshmipathy has been associated with the newspaper industry and newspaper forums for more than 55 years. He was Chairman of the Audit Bureau of Circulation, President of the Indian Newspaper Society, President of the Indian Language Newspaper Association and Member of the Press Council of India. He has also served as Chairman of the Board of Press Trust of India. Dr Lakshmipathy has a Diploma in Newspaper Management from University of Cardiff, UK. He is an educationist and runs the Marine Engineering, Science College and School at Madurai, Tamil Nadu.

Vineet Jain is a Director on the Board of Press Trust of India. He is the Managing Director of Bennett, Coleman & Co Ltd (The Times Group). As the Times Group’s strategist, marketing visionary and editorial architect, Mr Jain has spearheaded the group’s highly successful forays into internet, radio, television and outdoor media. He is also responsible for revamping the group’s daily newspapers into youthful, contemporary and cutting-edge brands. Mr Jain is the Chancellor of Bennett University – the group’s higher education entity. He is the recipient of many prestigious awards, including the Rajiv Gandhi Award for Corporate Excellence 2009, Indian TellyAward 2009 and Media Person of the Year Award from International Advertising Association (IAA) in 2015.

K.N. Shanth Kumar is a Director on the Board of Press Trust of India. He is Director of Bengaluru-based, The Printers (Mysore) Pvt Ltd, which publishes Deccan Herald, Prajavani, Sudha and Mayura newspapers. Mr Kumar has been involved in the management of the company in various roles since 1983. He has served in various capacities in the newspaper industry. He was Chairman of the Audit Bureau of Circulations, Member of the Executive Committee of the Indian Newspaper Society for more than 20 years and was also Chairman of the Board of Press Trust of India. Mr Kumar has a keen interest in sports and photography. He has covered all Olympic Games since 1988 as an accredited photographer, besides several other sporting events.

Mahendra Mohan Gupta or MMG, as he is affectionately known, is a Director on the Board of Press Trust of India. Mr Gupta is CMD and Editorial Director of Jagran Prakashan Ltd, one of India’s leading media and communications group which publishes newspapers like Dainik Jagran and Midday. Mr Gupta was a Member of Parliament, having served as a lawmaker in the Rajya Sabha. Over the years, he has been on key policy-making councils of the media industry. He was President of the Indian Language Newspaper Association, President of the Indian Newspaper Society and also Member of the Film Censor Board. He has also served as Chairman on the Board of Press Trust of India.

Mr Hormusji N. Cama is a Director on the Board of Press Trust of India. He is the Chairman of the Board of the Audit Bureau of Circulations, the only private association recognised by the Government of India to certify paid newspaper sales. He is also the Director of Asia's oldest newspaper, The Bombay Samachar, and the former President of the Indian Newspaper Society (two terms), former Chairman of Media Research Users Council, the body that runs the world’s largest readership survey, former Chairman of the Readership Survey Council of India, former member of the Press Council of India (for nine years), former Chairman of the Commonwealth Press Union (India) and former Chairman of the Press Trust of India. He continues to be on the Boards of INS and MRUC (as a special invitee).

Riyad Mathew is a Director on the Board of Press Trust of India. He is Director of the Malayala Manorama media group. A member of the management, Mr Mathew looks after The Week, a group publication. Before joining The Week, he was with The Associated Press as a Correspondent in Washington DC. Mr Mathew did his Master’s in Journalism from the University of Maryland and trained with The Washington Post, The Washington Times and Capital News Service. Mr Mathew is an Executive Board Member of the International Press Institute, Vienna. He is a Member of the Council of Management of Audit Bureau of Circulations (ABC). He has also served as Chairman on the Board of Press Trust of India.

Viveck Goenka is a Director on the Board of Press Trust of India. He is Chairman, Managing Director and Editorial Director of the Indian Express Group.Mr Goenka, a B.Tech, has been on the boards of several newspaper forums, including the MRUC, the ABC, and is a past president of the Indian Newspaper Society. He has also served as Chairman of the Board of Press Trust of India.Mr Goenka launched the prestigious Ramnath Goenka Excellence in Journalism Awards.Mr Goenka is an auto enthusiast and has a varied collection of 4x4s, vintage and classic cars. He takes an active interest in wildlife conservation and water management.Mr Goenka owns and manages a premium chain of restaurants, patisseries and bars.

Praveen Someshwar is an Additional Director on the Board of Press Trust of India. He is MD and CEO of HT Media Ltd.Mr Someshwar is an experienced leader in the Food and Beverages industry, having spent 24 years with Pepsico across geographies.Mr Someshwar is passionate about startups and has worked closely with them. He has also been on Boards and Advisory Boards at various points of time with some of the leading groups in Asia.When not working, Mr Someshwar loves running, holidaying across the globe and spending time with his wife and teenage daughter.

Former Chief Justice of India R.C. Lahoti is an Independent Director on the Board of Press Trust of India. He was appointed the Chief Justice of India on June 1, 2004 and retired on October 31, 2005. Starting his career at the Bar in Madhya Pradesh’s Guna district in 1961 as a pleader, Justice Lahoti has served as a Judge in the Madhya Pradesh High Court and the Delhi High Court. He was appointed to the Supreme Court in December, 1998. Justice Lahoti has immense interest in legal aid services and alternative dispute resolution systems.

Deepak Nayyar is an Independent Director on the Board of Press Trust of India. He is Emeritus Professor of Economics at Jawaharlal Nehru University and an Honorary Fellow of Balliol College, Oxford. Mr Nayyar served as Vice Chancellor of the University of Delhi and as Chief Economic Advisor to the Government of India. Mr Nayyar was Distinguished University Professor of Economics at the New School for Social Research, New York. He has also taught at the University of Oxford, the University of Sussex and the Indian Institute of Management, Calcutta. Mr Nayyar has served as a Director on the Boards of State Bank of India, EXIM Bank, Maruti, SAIL, ONGC and ICRA.

Jimmy Ferdoon Pochkhanawalla is an Independent Director on the Board of Press Trust of India. He is a Senior Advocate of the Bombay High Court. Mr Pochkhanawalla is an LL.B. from the Bombay University and has an LL.M. degree from the Columbia University in the United States. He was a Rotary International Foundation Scholar at the Columbia. Mr Pochkhanawalla joined the Bombay High Court Bar in 1982. He specialises in civil and administrative writs, indirect taxation, corporate and general laws and arbitration.

Shyam Saran is an Independent Director on the Board of Press Trust of India. He was a career diplomat and served in several capitals of the world including Beijing, Tokyo and Geneva. Mr Saran joined the Indian Foreign Service or IFS in 1970 and retired in 2006 as the Foreign Secretary of India. In the Ministry of External Affairs, he headed the Economic Division, the Multilateral Economic Division and the East Asia Division, which handles relations with China and Japan. Mr Saran was awarded Padma Bhushan in 2011. He holds a post-graduate degree in Economics and speaks Hindi, English and Chinese, and is conversant in French.