Uday Shankar is the CEO of Star India, one of the largest media and entertainment companies in India that operates nearly 40 channels in 8 languages, including its flagship Star Plus. The STAR network enjoys market leadership in key geographies, demographics, and time slots, and today reaches more than 400 million viewers in India and across the globe every week. Uday has been at the helm since October 2007 and has guided the transformation of STAR into a diversified media company leading initiatives in distribution through Media Pro, movies through Fox Studio, regional television through Asianet, home shopping through Star CJ network, and, most recently, in sports through the acquisition of the rights to telecast Indian cricket. His tenure has been marked by persistent leadership in television through innovative programming and investments in leading technologies, both of which invariably set the benchmark for the industry. In addition to his leadership of Star, Uday is a leading voice of the media and broadcasting industry in the country, championing reforms for the industry and its consumers. As President of the Indian Broadcasting Forum (IBF) and as Chairperson of the FICCI Broadcast Committee, Uday has been at the forefront of landmark changes in self-regulation and ensuring expanding access for consumers to digitized distribution. Uday started his career as a political journalist with the Times of India. He holds an M.Phil in Economic History from the Jawaharlal Nehru University, Delhi.
Anuja Chauhan
BISHAN Singh Bedi is a former Indian Cricketer who has primarily been a slow left -arm orthodox bowler. He has played Test Cricket for India from 1966 to 1979 and formed part of the famous Indian quartet. He captained the national side in 22 Test Matches and is also famous for wearing the colorful patka along with his outspoken / forthright views on cricketing matters. Mr Bedi started his career at the age of 15 and started playing for Northern Punjab. In 1974-75, Ranji Trophy season, he took a record of 64 wickets. He also represented Northamptonshire in English County cricket for many years. His Bowling has been described as graceful, full of guile and artistry. He was an expert at "flighting " the ball. Mr Bedi succeeded Mansoor Ali Khan Pataudi as the Captain of Indian Cricket Team in 1976. His first test victory as a captain was against West Indies. In 2008, Wisden Cricketers Almanack named Bedi as one of the five best cricketers. He finished his career with 1560 wickets in first class cricket.
In 38 years in advertising and media, Chintamani Rao has worked with major global advertising agency networks including Lintas, Ogilvy & Mather and McCann, and in news broadcasting, in Mumbai, Chennai, Bangalore, New Delhi and Jakarta. As President, Integrated Communications at McCann Worldgroup he was responsible for the company's media (Universal McCann), CRM (MRM Partners), event management (Momentum) and healthcare (McCann Healthcare) businesses. A specialist in brand and market strategy, in his career in Advertising he has advised local and international clients in diverse categories, including automotive, financial services, foods, personal products, personal wear and corporate brands. As CEO at news broadcaster India TV he oversaw the channel's growth from a fledgling to a challenger to the market leader. At Times Global Broadcasting Co he steered the growth of Times NOW to market leadership and the launch of ET NOW. During his tenure in broadcasting he was a Director of the Indian Broadcasting Foundation; a founder and Director of the News Broadcasters Association; and Chairman of the Broadcast Audience Research Council. He retired from The Times of India Group as Vice Chairman of Times Global Broadcasting and advisor to Times Private Treaties, and returned to advertising as President of R K SWAMY Media Group. Now an independent consultant, he continues to be an associate with R K SWAMY Media Group as Senior Advisor. He is also engaged as Senior Counsellor with Penn Schoen Berland; and as an independent strategic advisor to marketing and media companies. He has a BA (Hons) in Economics from St Stephen's College and an MBA from XLRI, Jamshedpur. He writes a blog, Take it from me... (http://chintarao.blogspot.com) commenting on issues in marketing and media.
As Chairman of the Indian operations of Starcom MediaVest Group (SMG), the world's no.1 Media agency and Managing Director of LiquidThread Asia-Pac, the all-screen content practice of SMG, CVL Srinivas (Srini) leads a team of diverse media professionals. He has a rich experience of nearly two decades dominantly in media companies and is a member of the Global Management Group—Starcom MediaVest Group's global executive leadership team tasked to develop the Agency of the Future vision and accelerate the expansion opportunities in the areas of financial growth, emerging markets, talent management and digital capabilities. Srini has a Bachelor's in Mechanical Engineering from BITS Pilani and a Masters in Business Administration from XLRI Jamshedpur. He was previously Asia-Pac ceo of Maxus and COO at Madison. Srini was part of the start-up team at Fulcrum (now Mindshare-Fulcrum), India's first media AOR on the Unilever business. He was Director with The Times of India Group before joining SMG.
Dr. S S Mantha
Krishna Prasad is the Editor-in-Chief of India’s most vibrant weekly newsmagazine, Outlook. In a 26-year career in journalism, he has worked in four cities and six publications; taught journalism in three continents; edited four books; and publishes two widely read blogs, including one on the media.
Part of the team that launched Outlook magazine 15 years ago, Krishna was one of the two journalists who broke the match-fixing scam that turned the cricket world upside down. He was editor of the Bangalore daily 'Vijay Times' of The Times of India group before returning to Outlook four years ago.
Madan Bahal, 56, is the co-founder of Adfactors Public Relations. The firm was established in 1997. During the last decade Madan Bahal has led the firm into a position of market leadership. The firm is India's largest public relations consultancy based on pure fee based income from public relations activities. The firm has successfully withstood competition based on its strong knowledge of business domains and the Indian socio-cultural-political dynamic. According to Holmes report 2011 Adfactors PR is the only Indian firm amongst the Asian top ten PR consultancies. Over the last seven years the firm has registered a compounded annual growth rate (CAGR) of 35% making it one of the fastest growing PR firms in the world. The firm has market leading practices in corporate, financial and crisis communications. The firm is a de-facto leader in financial communications. Its average annual market share of volume of funds mobilized over the last decade has been in excess of 70%. Adfactors PR has managed virtually all the billion dollar plus equity IPOs during the last five years. The firm is also a distinct leader in several sector verticals like banking & financial services, energy and infrastructure, realty and construction. Madan has a simple hands on leadership style deeply rooted in Indian philosophy. He has created an organizational culture based on strong values like freedom, transparency, integrity and client centricity. The firm has the largest and the most stable bench of senior consultants in the industry. Adfactors PR does not work for businesses engaged in alcohol, tobacco, meat processing and gambling. It is the highest tax payer in the PR industry both in terms of value and percentage. He has advised over 500 corporations in corporate, financial and crisis communications. He is acknowledged for his counsel and expertise in large capital market transactions. His strategic work on large and complex mandates like Konkan Railway, Resurgent India Bonds, Coal India Limited are documented and published as case studies in domestic business media and international trade journals like PR Week. He is also credited with creating innovative 'industry first' products like IPO Nurture and Crisis 24X7.
Mr.Maheshwer Peri started his career as an investment banker with the largest investment bank in India. A Chartered accountant by profession, He is also a qualified management accountant and company secretary. As a merchant banker, he has worked on many projects in varying industries including the ones on media. Mr. Peri took over the reins of one of the fastest growing media groups at a young age of 28 in 1998. Today, OUTLOOK group publishes 10 magazines and has a flourishing book business too. Mr.Peri believes in the power and need of education for the future of India and its youth. He turned an entrepreneur in 2009 and started his own publishing venture, Pathfinder Publishing. The company now publishes Careers360 – a complete career magazine which targets the 17-24 year old students. Careers360 has redefined journalism in the education and careers genre and made it mainstream from those that were found in supplements. The magazine is also available in Hindi. Right now, Mr.Peri is working on creating the largest education portals across six verticals in India.
Markand Adhikari
P.N. Vasanti is director of New Delhi-based multidisciplinary research organization Centre for Media Studies (CMS). CMS has been regularly providing inputs and feedback to several communication and media related policy issues to the various Ministries and international bodies. CMS Media Lab specializes in tracking electronic and print news media trends and its analysis is widely sought by media and communication experts. Vasanti specializes in strategy development, designing, researching and evaluating media initiatives. She also writes and teaches on media & communication issues. She has a fortnightly column in Mint called Fine Print (livemint.com/fineprint) where she shares research findings from the CMS Media Lab and comments on media trends. Vasanti has double masters degrees in Psychology and Management.
Sandeep Goyal (49) is the Vice Chairman of The Mogae Group. A well-known name in the world of media & communication, Sandeep was the Group Chairman of Dentsu's India operations from 2003 to 2011. He was earlier Group CEO of Zee Telefilms & is a former President of ad agency Rediffusion DY&R. Sandeep remains Founder Chairman of Dentsu India, and is Chairman of Mogae Media. An MBA (FMS Delhi '84) and an Honors graduate in English literature (gold medalist) from Panjab University, Sandeep did his schooling & college in Chandigarh. Sandeep has been on the governing bodies of the Advertising Agencies Association of India (AAAI), Indian Broadcasting Foundation (IBF), Advertising Standards Council of India (ASCI), Media Research Users Council (MRUC) and the US-based National Academy of Television Arts & Sciences of (NATAS), over the years. The first Indian on the global jury of the Emmy Awards (2002), Sandeep wrote 'The Dum Dum Bullet', a bestseller on the business of advertising in 2003. The book was published by Penguin. A regular contributor to The Economic Times, Financial Express, Business Standard, Hindu Business Line, Business World and other publications of repute, Sandeep is a much sought after speaker in industry forums.
Shravan Garg, is the Chief Editor of Nai Dunia in Madhya Pradesh & Chattisgarh with an experience spanning 40 years . He has been conferred with the Lokmanya Tilak National Award for excellence in Journalism. Mr. Garg has also been associated with groups like Bhaskar Group of Publications, Divya Bhaskar , Shanivar Darpan, Free Press Journal, M.P. Chronicle, Financial Express, Ass Pass, Indian Express, Prajaneeti and Sarvodaya. Some of his published works include "Bihar Aandolan-Ek Simhavlokan" and "Chambal ki Bandooken Gandhi ke Charaon Mein" amongst other books on stories and poems. Apart from English and Hindi dailies he has also worked for Gujarati Dailies and writes regularly articles and comments on current affair issues.
Shyam Benegal
His TV career started with Doordarshan in 1993 where he hosted two shows, Question Forum and Round Table before switching to the Star network in 1997. Since then, he has continued to host several shows on Star, starting with A Question of Answers on Star Plus, followed by Star Talk on Star News and Cover Story on Star World. His most recent show was Achiever's Club on Star World in 2012. He has also made several shows for NDTV starting with Face the Music in 2005 and One on One on 2006, for NDTV24x7. For NDTV Good Times, he has anchored Custom Made for Vir Sanghvi and has been a judge on the recently concluded Foodistan. Sanghvi has also anchored shows for other networks. For CNBC, he hosted Tycoons and Off the Record. For Discovery Travel and Living, he anchored A Matter of Taste and Vir Sanghvi's Asian Diary. He is a member of the Broadcast Content Council set up by the IBF. Vir Sanghvi has also simultaneously maintained a career in print. In 1978, he became the youngest editor in Indian history when he was appointed editor of Bombay at 22. Later, he edited Imprint and in 1986, at the age of 30, he became editor of Sunday In 1999, he became editor of the Hindustan Times, went on to become editorial director and then shifted in 2007 to a corporate advisory role while continuing to write columns for HT Media's print publications (the Hindustan Times and Mint). His current designation is Advisor, HT Media. He is also an author. His book Men of Steel (Roli Book) is one of India's biggest paperback bestsellers in the non-fiction category. His other books include Rude Food, India – Then and Now and a biography of Madhavrao Scindia.