Adani group-owned NDTV Ltd on Monday said it has appointed former Sebi chairman Upendra Kumar Sinha and Welspun India Ltd CEO and MD Dipali Goenka as its independent directors. The board has approved the appointment of Sinha and Goenka with immediate effect, said a regulatory filing by the news broadcaster.

Both of them have been appointed as additional directors in the capacity of non-executive independent directors with effect from March 27, 2023, for two years, up to March 26, 2025, NDTV said. The appointments are subject to approval in the ensuing general meeting of the company and the ministry of information & broadcasting, it added.

The board approved their appointments “in line with the Adani Group’s objective to ensure complete independence and professionalism of the board of directors of New Delhi Television Ltd”, the filing added. Sinha, a former bureaucrat, served as the chairman of the Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) between 2011 and 2017.

Before this, he was the chairman and managing director at UTI Asset Management Company Pvt Ltd for six years. Goenka is the chief executive officer and managing director of the leading textile firm Welspun India Ltd.

Last year in December, the Adani group gained full control of news broadcaster NDTV after it acquired most of the stake of founders Prannoy Roy and Radhika Roy at a premium of almost 17 per cent over the rate it paid to minority shareholders of the firm. The Adani Group holds over 64 per cent of New Delhi Television Ltd (NDTV).

BQ Prime

Gautam Adani’s AMG Media Networks has acquired about a 49 per cent stake in Raghav Bahl-curated digital business news platform Quintillion Business Media Pvt Ltd for about Rs 48 crore. In a stock exchange filing, Adani Enterprises Ltd said its subsidiary AMG Media Networks Ltd has completed the acquisition which was originally announced in May last year. The transaction was completed on March 27 for “Rs 47.84 crore”, it said. Quintillion Business Media runs the news platform Bloomberg Quint, now called BQ Prime. Adani group had set up AMG Media Networks for its foray into businesses of “publishing, advertising, broadcasting, distribution of content over different types of media networks”.