Tony D'Silva gets new role at Hinduja Group

The erstwhile president of Hinduja Ventures will now be managing director and chief executive officer of IndusInd Media and Communications.

With the announcement of Ravi Mansukhani's decision to move on from Hinduja Ventures (HVL) as managing director of IndusInd Media and Communications (IMCL), Tony D'Silva steps into his shoes to spearhead IMCL. D'Silva has been president at HVL for about a year and a half.

The company plans to restructure its media vertical with an investment of Rs 300 crore.

In order to consolidate all media initiatives of HVL, D'Silva is being re-designated as group CEO, media of Hinduja Ventures, as well as MD and CEO of IMCL. He will hold the responsibility to restructure the entire media business and value creation.

To continue the emphasis on taking advantage of opportunities presented by digitisation in the cable business, the board appointed D'Silva to take charge of the responsibilities with immediate effect and also approved certain other key management changes.

D'Silva was brought into the company to head the Headend-in-the-sky (HITS) business. He has a total experience of more than four decades across FMCG, media and pharmaceutical industries. He began his media foray in 1992 as CEO of Modi Entertainment and in 1997, was a part of the team that launched Zee TV's international business in the UK.

Upon his return to India in 2001, he joined STAR as executive vice-president and consolidated its TV business. He joined the Sun Group in 2007 to set up Sun Direct DTH as CEO, and then took over as group CEO, overseeing its entire media business including TV, print and radio.

For the record, IMCL has an estimated 8.5 million subscribers across 36 major cities, through its digital addressable system (DAS), Siti Cable. It has planned new services for the digital cable foray, apart from the broadband services such as HD, hybrid STBs for cable and internet and value added services for digital cable.