Gautam Adhikari back to the Times Group

Televisionpoint.com Correspondent
Gautam Adhikari has returned where he began his journalistic career, The Times of India. Adhikari recently put in his papers at DNA (Daily News & Analysis), where he was the Chief Editor.

Adhikari is slated to join the Times Group as Editorial Advisor and Dean of The Times School of Journalism. He will be based at Delhi, reporting directly to Vineet Jain, Managing Director, Bennett, Coleman & Co. Ltd.

Adhikari said he would take up his new assignment in June as he would take a short vacation abroad. "I am excited to join back the Times Group, where I started my journalistic career and spent most of my time in this profession. I am looking forward to the assignment."

Rahul Kansal, Brand Director, TOI, says, "Gautam will advise the Group on editorial matters and trends pertaining to publishing and broadcasting by providing inputs to the top management . We are planning to expand the School of Journalism and he will play a key role in that and give it a new impetus."

Adhikari had been with DNA for the past two years, ever since its inception, the paper bucked the general declining trend in readership among English dailies. Adhikari began his journalistic career with The Economic Times-Kolkata in 1976. Prior to that, he was with State Bank of India in their International Banking Division. For a brief period he had worked for The Hindu as Special Correspondent before returning to the Times fold.

Adhikari has over the years played a key role in benchmarking TOI's national and foreign news coverage with international standards. From 1987-88 he was Resident Fellow and Adjunct Lecturer at the Harvard Kennedy School of Government. He spent a number of years as TOI's Washington Correspondent starting 1988. From 1992-94 he worked for the World Bank and was a visiting faculty at well-known universities like George Washington University and George Mason University. He returned to Delhi as Executive Editor of The Times of India in the mid-nineties. After a three-year stint, he went back to Washington in 1997, functioning as a World Bank Consultant and being part of various American think-tanks.