N. Ravi, Publisher and former Editor-in-Chief of The Hindu , was on Saturday unanimously elected Chairman of the Press Trust of India (PTI). Vijay Kumar Chopra, Chief Editor of the Punjab Kesari Group of newspapers, was elected Vice-Chairman.
Mr. Ravi succeeds Viveck Goenka, chairman and managing director of the Express Group.
The elections took place at a meeting of the Board of Directors of the news agency following the company’s 70th annual general meeting here.
“In the incoming Chairman ... we have been blessed with a person who brings with him formidable intellect, foresight, knowledge and wisdom,” Mr. Goenka said. “I am certain that he will enhance PTI’s reputation and ensure its financial viability.”
Mr. Ravi has been the chairman of the India chapter of the International Press Institute and a member of the executive board of the International Press Institute, Vienna.
He was president of the Editors’ Guild of India and had been a member of the National Integration Council from 2006 to 2008.
Mr. Ravi has won several academic awards, including a gold medal in constitutional and international law.
He was a Fellow at the Harvard Law School in 2000 and the Shorenstein Fellow at the Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University, in 2004. In 2013, he was a Visiting Fellow at the Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism, and St. Anthony’s College, Oxford University.
He joined The Hindu in 1972, where he served as a reporter, a leader writer, the Washington correspondent, a Deputy Editor and an Associate Editor. He was Editor from 1991 to 2011 and Editor-in-Chief from October 2013 to January 2015.
Mr. Ravi has covered several international conferences and travelled with Prime Ministers and Presidents to cover international summits. His areas of interest include constitutional and political issues, economic policy, international economy, free speech and human rights, and India-U.S. relations.
He is the recipient of several professional awards, including the G K. Reddy Memorial Award and BREAD Role Model Award, and was awarded an honorary doctorate by the Sri Venkateswara University, Tirupati.
Besides Mr. Ravi, Mr. Chopra and Mr. Goenka, the PTI Board members are Mahendra Mohan Gupta ( Dainik Jagran ), K.N. Shanth Kumar ( Deccan Herald ), Vineet Jain ( Times of India ), Riyad Mathew ( Malayala Manorama ), Aveek Kumar Sarkar ( Anand Bazar Patrika ), M.P. Veerendra Kumar ( Mathrubhumi ), R. Lakshmipathy ( Dinamalar ), Hormusji N. Cama ( BombaySamachar ), Justice R.C. Lahoti, Deepak Nayyar, Shyam Saran and J.F. Pochkhanawalla.
(With inputs from PTI)
