Subhash Chandra


Subhash Chandra Goenka is an Indian billionaire media baron. He is the chairman of the Essel Group, an Indian media conglomerate, and founded Zee TV in 1992. He was also the chairman of Zee Media, but resigned as Director and Non-Executive Chairman of the company on 24 May 2016. He was elected to the Upper House of the Indian parliament for the Haryana state in the 2016 Rajya Sabha election, as an independent candidate.

Early years

Chandra was born in Adampur, on Hisar district, Haryana into an Marwari Bania family. His family had a debt of 3.5 lakh Indian rupees, which he had to repay. His family could not afford his higher education, and in 1965 he dropped out of school to join the family business of commission agents and traders who procured and supplied rice to the Food Corporation of India.
In the 1980s he started manufacturing flexible packaging for fast moving consumer goods such as toothpaste under the brand name Essel Packaging. He followed it up with a leisure park in north Mumbai.
In 1992, he launched Zee TV, the second private commercial television channel in the country in association with Star TV in Hong Kong, and in 2003, Dish TV, the first satellite television provider in India.

Business

Chandra launched India's first satellite TV channel, Zee TV, in 1992. The channel competes with, among others, Sony Entertainment Television and STAR Plus. Currently, the Zee TV network, consisting up to 90 channels, reach 1.3 Billion people spread over 174 countries.
In 2005, in collaboration with Dainik Bhaskar group, Chandra launched an English-language daily newspaper, DNA, in Mumbai to challenge the well-settled The Times of India. The competition was one of the biggest newspaper battles of Mumbai. Sustaining earlier losses, the newspaper eventually turned around.
On 25 November 2019, Chandra had to resign as chairman of his company Zee Entertainment Enterprises, as per the SEBI Listing Regulations. However, he still continues as a non-executive director of the company.
In his autobiography ‘The Z factor: My journey as the wrong man at the right time’, Chandra has written about his association with the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, ideological parent of the BJP, in his younger days. Chandra claimed the support of Bharatiya Janata Party legislators and said he had others across party lines.
On 22 May 2020, Essel Group defaulted 616 INR Crore NCD Bonds with Subhash Chandra Personal Guarantee.

Awards