Presently, English news channel space is dominated by NDTV, CNN-IBN and Times Now; the oldest among them is NDTV. There is one common thread among all these channels. Editor-in-chief of all these channels had learned the basic of electronic media at NDTV.
NDTV is the brainchild of Prannoy Roy. And Prannoy Roy is the father of Indian electronic media, who through sheer grits, determination, hard work and vision, changed the face of Indian television.
By the time you finish chronicling the history of NDTV, you have almost completed chronicling the history of Indian electronic media. Such is the hold of NDTV on Indian electronic media. Prannoy Roy, with his wife Radhika Roy, lunched NDTV in 1988. Then it was just a production house, whose programmes were aired by Doordarshan. NDTV has travelled lots of distance since then, and under him has always been in the forefront of every single news revolution over the last 25 years.
NDTV has evolved from just being a production house to the powerhouse of Electronic media under his leadership. However, the man himself has no educational background in media. The most celebrated media man in India is a trained Chartered Accountant who in his initial days worked for the consulting house, PriceWaterhouseCooper. Prior to the launch of NDTV, he was associated with the Ministry of Finance as Economic Advisor (1985-87).
The real moment in his career came with the success of NDTV’s first show ‘The World This Week”. This weekly show was one of the most popular shows of Doordarshan. He had people glued to their television sets with this show. Election shows with Vinod Dua on Doordarshan also played a big role in making making him the most recognised face of TV journalism.
It is often said, no matter who are going to won or lose during the elections, one man will remain unbeatable. This is the ultimate tribute to the man who also happens to be India’s one of the top psephologist. During the elections time, NDTV still relies heavily on his ability to simplify the statistical study of elections and trends and make them presentable.
Dr Prannoy Roy was born on October 15, 1949. He is married to Radhika Roy (sister of Brinda karat). Dr. Roy has a doctorate in Economics from the Delhi School of Economics and is a Qualified Chartered Accountant from London. He graduated in Economics from the University of London’s Queen Mary College in 1973. He received his Ph.D. (in agricultural economics) from the Delhi School of Economics, where he also taught for a year.
Awards
- 1997: Runner up for Best news Presenter/Anchor in the Asian Television Awards
- 1994-95: B.D. Goenka Award for excellence in Journalism
- 2003: Ernst & Young – Entrepreneur of the year award (Media)
- 1998: Screen Videocon Award for Lifetime Achievement
- 1998: Limca Book of Records -Person of the Year Award
- 2008: Television Personality of the Millennium by the Indian Express
