MSM's Manjit Singh replaces STAR's Uday Shankar as president, IBF

The new executive council has three vice-presidents including Rajat Sharma, chairman, India TV; Sunil Lulla, managing director and CEO, Times Television Network; and Punit Goenka, managing director and chief executive officer, Zee Entertainment Enterprises.

At the 13th annual general meeting of the Indian Broadcasting Foundation (IBF), Manjit Singh, CEO, Multi Screen Media has been named president. In this role, Singh replaces Uday Shankar, CEO, STAR India.

Shankar was appointed president in 2010 and was re-elected in 2011.Before Shankar, Jawahar Goel, managing director, DishTV was the president for six years.

The council has appointed three vice-presidents to face the growing challenges in the industry and for better coordination across all initiatives such as digitisation, regulatory, fiscal and content-related issues and matters pertaining to the industry as a whole. The new executive council comprises three vice-presidents including Rajat Sharma, chairman, India TV, who was a member in the council till now; Sunil Lulla, managing director and chief executive officer, Times Television Network (erstwhile vice-president); and Punit Goenka, managing director and chief executive officer, Zee Entertainment Enterprises (erstwhile treasurer).

Rahul Johari, senior vice-president and general manager, South Asia, Discovery Network Asia Pacific has been named the new treasurer for the executive council.

The board has seven other members including STAR India's Shankar; Sudhanshu Vats, group CEO, Viacom18; N P Singh, COO, MSM; K Madhavan, managing director, Asianet Communications; I Venkat, director, ETV (Eenadu); Dish TV's Goel; KVL Narayan Rao, executive vice-chairman, NDTV Group; and Siddharth Jain, vice-president and general manager, distribution and business operations, Turner International India and South Asia.

The board has also appointed three directors, Tripurari Sharan, deputy general, Doordarshan; Markand Adhikari, vice-chairman and managing director, Sri Adhikari Bros Television Network; and Ronnie Screwvala, CEO, UTV.

At the meeting, Shankar said, "The last two years have been very important for the broadcasting industry with new changes and technology being ushered in. I have had the most eventful tenure as president as I witnessed all these changes happening right in front of me. Be it DAS (digital access system) or institutionalising the self-regulating mechanism in the form of Broadcasting Content Complaints Council (BCCC)."

Singh, the new president, said that digitisation is the biggest challenge that stares at the industry currently and its timely and phased implementation is of prime concern. "With very little time left for implementation, the IBF must take the lead on the issue," he added.