Adani Group-Controlled NDTV Board Ropes In Another Former Bureaucrat

Mittal, a 1977-batch IAS officer from the Uttar Pradesh cadre, is the second retired IAS officer joining the NDTV board after Upendra Kumar Sinha, who was appointed as its independent director and non-executive chairman in March this year.

Sinha was the former chairman of the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI), the stock market regulator, between 2011 and 2017.

Mittal, whose term began on June 27, has been appointed for two years, the company’s stock exchange filing showed.

Mittal had earlier served as the Corporate Affairs Secretary and as an Additional Secretary in the Ministry of Commerce, during which time he also served as India’s chief negotiator at the World Trade Organisation (WTO).

Earlier, two Adani Group nominees and former bureaucrats had resigned from the NDTV board within a few weeks of their appointment, after the Gautam Adani-led group bought out the stake owned by NDTV founders Prannoy Roy and Radhika Roy in December 2022.

Adani Group’s corporate affairs chief and brand custodian Aman Kumar Singh, a former IRS officer, resigned from the media company’s board months after his appointment citing “preoccupation”. Singh had served as the Principal Secretary to the then Chief Minister Raman Singh during the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government in Chhattisgarh. He joined the Adani Group in November last year.

Former Chhattisgarh Chief Secretary Sunil Kumar too had stepped down after he was appointed as a non-executive independent director to the NDTV board.

In March, along with UK Sinha, NDTV had appointed Welspun India's chief executive officer and managing director Dipali Goenka as a non-executive independent director until March 26, 2025.