- Saturday, May 03, 2025
By: Shubham Ghosh
Gautam Adani, one of India’s richest businessmen and an ally of prime minister Narendra Modi, on Tuesday (23) left the country’s ‘secular’ minds shocked by launching what certain sections called a “hostile takeover” of the popular NDTV (New Delhi Television Limited) network. According to the critics of the Modi government, the deal has sparked concerns over the future of one of the few media outlets in India that is prepared to take on the current government.
On Tuesday, a unit of Adani’s conglomerate said that it will acquire a 29.18 per cent stake in NDTV in a complex arrangement involving an investor of the network, The Guardian reported, calling it a “stunning coup”.
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Since under India’s takeover regulations, the move leads to an open offer for a stake of another 26 per cent, Adani would end up with a controlling stake of 55 per cent.
To make things more shocking for the ‘secular’ voices, it was also revealed on Tuesday that the company and its high-profile founders of the network — journalists Prannoy Roy and his wife Radhika Roy — knew nothing about the takeover that Adani announced.
“The NDTV founders and the company would like to make it clear that this … was executed without any input from, conversation with, or consent of the NDTV founders, who, like NDTV, have been made aware of this exercise of rights only today,” it said in a statement.
NDTV runs national channels in English and Hindi, besides a business channel and other news websites.
Dipti Lavya Swain, founder and managing partner at DLS Law Offices, told Guardian: “From NDTV’s statements, it seems this may not be a friendly takeover which generally is as per agreed terms and mechanism, and in fact, may end up being a hostile takeover.”
NDTV is also home to one of India’s most respected journalists Ravish Kumar.
Author and media entrepreneur Minhaz Merchant said the latest development could see a series of exits of news personalities from NDTV.
“[NDTV] was unabashedly pro-Congress and anti-BJP,” Merchant told Guardian. “The Adani buyout will see an exodus of anchors and the channel will move editorially from left to centre.”
Former Indian National Congress leader and central minister Kapil Sibal said in a tweet that the development was worrying. “Almost the last bastion of Independent journalism being taken over by industry We should be worried,” he said.
NDTV
Adani to acquire 29%
Makes open offer for 26%Almost the last bastion of Independent journalism being taken over by industry
We should be worried!
— Kapil Sibal (@KapilSibal) August 24, 2022
Adani’s takeover will also see him pitted against Mukesh Ambani, his billionaire Indian rival, whose Reliance Industries is already an established name in the country’s media sector.
