Rajdeep Sardesai – “Rahul. ‘He is our leader,’ was the cryptic response. Truth” : B’day Special

By Line: Shivendra Pandey

Rajdeep Sardesai (born 24 May 1965) is an Indian news anchor and author. He is a consulting editor at the India Today group, and hosts India Today Television. He was the Editor-in-Chief of Global Broadcast News, that included CNN-IBN, IBN7 and IBN-Lokmat; he resigned in July 2014.

Early Life and Awards

Sardesai was born in Ahemdabad, Gujrat to a Goan father and a Gujrati mother. His father, Dilip Sardesai, was a former Indian Test Cricketer and his mother, Nandini, is an activist in Mumbai and former head of the Department of Sociology at St. Xavier’s College, Mumbai. He completed his schooling up to ICSE from the Campion School in Mumbai, did two years of ISC in The Cathedral & John Connon School, Mumbai, and completed a bachelor’s course in economics from St. Xavier’s College. He then went to University College, Oxford, earning the degrees of Bachelor of Arts, Master of Arts, and Bachelor of Civil Law.

Rajdeep has been awarded Padma Shree by Government of India in 2008, International Broadcasters award for coverage of the 2002 Gujarat riots and the Ramnath Goenka Excellence in Journalism award for 2006. Rajdeep is married to Sagarika Ghose and they have two bright and beautiful children, son Ishan, and daughter Tarini.

Experience and Tragedy

Sardesai worked with The Times of India for six years, after joining it in October 1988, and was the city editor of its Mumbai edition. He entered television journalism in 1994 as Political Editor of New Delhi Television (NDTV). He was the Managing Editor of both NDTV 24X7 and NDTV India and was responsible for overseeing the news policy for both. He hosted popular shows like The Big Fight at NDTV.

He quit NDTV on 17 April 2005 to start his own company, Global Broadcast News (GBN), in collaboration with the American giant CNN and Raghav Bahl‘s TV18. The latter broadcasts the Indian Edition (in English) of CNBC called CNBC-TV18, the Hindi consumer channel, CNBC Awaaz and an international channel, SAW. The new channel with Sardesai as the Editor-in-Chief was named CNN-IBN. It went on air on 17 December 2005. Channel 7 has also come under this umbrella after Sardesai’s company bought a 46 percent stake in the channel. Channel 7 was later renamed IBN7.

On 29 May 2014, Reliance Industries Ltd announced it would be acquiring control in Network 18 Media & Investments Ltd, the parent of CNN-IBN, IBN7 and CNBC-TV18. The board of RIL approved funding of up to ₹40 billion (US$580 million) to Independent Media Trust (IMT), of which RIL is the sole beneficiary, for acquisition of control in Network 18 and its subsidiaries. Subsequently, on 1 July 2014,Rajdeep,editor-in-chief of CNN IBN along with the entire founding team – editorial and managerial – resigned from the Network18 group.