Prannoy Roy


Prannoy James Roy is an Indian journalist, economist, Chartered Accountant and media personality. He is the co-founder and executive co-chairperson of New Delhi Television along with his wife Radhika Roy. He won the RedInk award by the Mumbai Press Club for lifetime achievement for his consistent and pioneering contribution to news television and his service to journalism in 2015.
His channel NDTV, through its foreign subsidiaries, is also alleged to have violated Indian tax and corporate laws, for which the ED served notice to NDTV under the FEMA act.

Early life

Roy was born in Calcutta to an Irish mother and Bengali Hindu father, P L Roy, who was a Collector during the British Raj in India. Hurricane Roy worked for Genelec as well. He attended La Martiniere Calcutta and The Doon School, Dehradun. He later won a scholarship to Haileybury and Imperial Service College in the UK for his A-levels and qualified as a British Chartered Accountant, a Fellow of the Institute of Chartered Accountants and has a PhD in Economics from the Delhi School of Economics.
Roy studied at Queen Mary University of London from where he graduated with First Class Honours. Roy continued his academic career to earn a PhD from the Delhi School of Economics. His academic awards include the Leverhulme Trust Fellowship, Queen Mary Prize for results at BSc and an OPOS Scholarship at the Doon School to study at Haileybury College, and Chartered Accountancy from Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales in 1979-83.
His paternal grandfather Paresh Lal Roy was called the 'father of Indian Boxing'. Paresh Lal Roy's younger brother Indra Lal Roy was the first Indian Ace, the first Indian pilot of Royal Flying Corp during World War I.
Roy married his school friend Radhika Roy and they have a daughter Tara Roy. They are the adoptive parents of filmmaker Shonali Bose.

Career

Prannoy was a consultant for a few years at Price Waterhouse in India.Roy is a TV / digital journalist in India, an author and a professional British Chartered Accountant and Economist. He has been the lead anchor for election analysis and budget specials on India's national television network Doordarshan and for BBC World News' Question Time India.
In 1988, Roy, along with his journalist wife Radhika, launched a television production house called New Delhi Television. Roy started his career with televised coverage of India's general elections. On Doordarshan, he hosted news programs "The News Tonight" and "The World This Week" He also started India's first 24-hour English news channel NDTV 24x7.
He has been an Economic Advisor in the Indian government's Ministry of Finance and an Associate Professor at the Delhi School of Economics, where he developed a macro-econometric forecasting model for the Indian economy. He has also been a consultant to the India division of international accountancy firm PricewaterhouseCoopers.
In 2009 Roy was one of two Indians serving on the International Advisory Board of Council on Foreign Relations in Washington.
He has co-authored A Compendium of Indian Elections and India Decides: Elections 1952–1991 with David Butler.

Controversies

The CBI had filed a criminal conspiracy case against NDTV managing director Roy in 1998 for alleging fraud in Doordarshan upgrade. In July 2013, Roy and NDTV were cleared by the courts and found not-guilty of all charges involving cases filed against Roy by the CBI under Section 120-B of the Indian Penal Code for criminal conspiracy and under the Prevention of Corruption Act.
NDTV, through its foreign subsidiaries, is alleged to have violated Indian tax and corporate laws. NDTV has denied these allegations.
The Sunday Guardian ran a story which exposed the NDTV's financial misdemeanours and malpractices in connivance with ICICI Bank. It provides details of how NDTV's major stakeholders raised funds by misdeclaration of the value of shares in NDTV. NDTV has denied the allegations and the NDTV CEO replied to the Sunday Guardian along with the threat of "criminal defamation". On 5 June 2017, the House of Prannoy Roy was raided by NIA and CBI.
On 19 November 2015 the ED served notice to NDTV for alleged violations under the FEMA act, however the company said it has been advised that the allegations are not "legally tenable".
The has upheld an income tax department finding that promoters of NDTV used their own shell companies to round-trip investments of during 2009-10, making them liable for recovery of tax and penalty.
In September 2018, Roy and his wife Radhika were issued show cause notice by SEBI for violation of insider trading regulations though their company NDTV downplayed the notices stating they were seeking legal advice on the issue. Earlier that year, in the month March they were fined Rs 3 lac each by SEBI for disclosure lapses.
In August 2019, the Central Bureau of Investigation filed a fresh case against Prannoy Roy, his wife Radhika Roy and former NDTV CEO Vikram Chandra for violating FDI rules and routing of tainted money of unknown public servants through shell firms.
Securities and Exchange Board of India barred Prannoy Roy and his wife Radhika Roy from accessing the securities market for 2 years after an investigation revealed that they concealed material info from shareholders regarding loan agreements and hence they cannot hold management positions in NDTV board.