Subhash Chandra Biography

About Subhash Chandra

Subhash Chandra also known as Subhash Chandra Goel was born on 30th November 1950 is the owner of the Essel Group, an Indian Conglomerate. He is the proud owner and launcher of Iindia's first satellite TV channel Zee TV, which he launched in the year 1992 and later the first private news channel Zee News.

About Subhash Chandra

Subhash Chandra also known as Subhash Chandra Goel was born on 30th November 1950 is the owner of the Essel Group, an Indian Conglomerate. He is the proud owner and launcher of Iindia's first satellite TV channel Zee TV, which he launched in the year 1992 and later the first private news channel Zee News.

Personal Background of Subhash Chandra

Chandra was born in Hissar, a small town in north India. He belongs to Marwari Baniya family and currently resides in Mumbai, Maharashtra. Subhash Chandra is married to Sushila Devi and has two children namely Amit Goenka, Punit Geonka

At an early age of 19, Chandra entered his family business of exporting rice. When Subhash, after dropping from the 12th standard entered the family business, the family was in debt of Rs five lakhs. He and his brothers got into the trading and exports of rice. Chandra's company procured and supplied rice to Food Corporation of India.

Chandra also decided to start his own vegetable oil unit and soon began a venture into export of food grains. In 1981, Chandra set up Essel Packaging Limited which was due to a visit to a packaging exhibition. The Essel Packaging Limited later merged with the Swiss group Propack A.G, this was when it was renamed as Essel Propack Limited.

Chandra proceeded further to set up amusement parks in India. He later decided to step into the world of broadcasting and emerged out successful in leasing a transponder on AsiaSat owned by Star TV.

Virtues

• Chandra plays an important role as a philanthropist.
• He has started several organizations that support social causes, one out of which is, TALEEM or Transnational Alternate Learning for Emancipation and Empowerment through Multimedia.
• TALEEM is involved in various educational and research activities.

Subhash Chandra's Career

Zee Telefilms Limited was launched by Subhash Chandra in October 1992 as a content supplier for Zee TV - India's first Hindi satellite channel. The first huge business potential of satellite television channels was harnessed by Subhash Chandra in India.

Chandra's field of industry includes leading businesses, which are, television networks and film entertainment, cable systems, satellite communications, theme parks, flexible packaging, family entertainment centers and online gaming.

Prior to the launch of Zee TV, Indian viewers were under the grip of Doordarshan, the state-controlled terrestrial network. Only because of Subhash Chandra's visions and efforts the satellite TV industry in India was born which inspired the others as well.

After the launch of Zee TV, Chandra brought into action Siticable operations in 1995 and also started a new joint venture with News Corp. In the same year two new channels, Zee News and Zee Cinema were launched by him.

Zee TV was announced the first cable company in India to launch Internet over Cable services in 2000. In 2003, Zee TV became the first one in India to launch Direct to Home (DTH) services. In a very short period of time Zee TV became a big media and gave tough competition to international media moguls, even today it maintains its position.

Awards and Achievements won by Subhash Chandra

• In 2010, Subhash Chandra was honored with The Hall of Fame for Continuing Contribution to Industry (Entrepreneur) at the annual
• Exchange4media Indian News Broadcasting Awards (EINBA).
• He is the Non-Executive Chairman of the Board and promoter of Essel Group of Companies.
• Chandra has also been the recipient of various honorary degrees, industry awards and civic honors.
• He was named 'Global Indian Entertainment Personality of the Year' by FICCI for 2004.
• Chandra was also honored with the title of 'Business Standard's Businessman of the Year' in 1999.
• In 1999, Ernst & Young honored him with the 'Entrepreneur of the Year' title.
• Chandra has also been chosen by The Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) as the Chairman of the CII Media Committee for two successive years.

Companies owned by Subhash Chandra

Zee Entertainment Enterprises Limited

Zee Entertainment Enterprises Limited is one of India’s leading television, media and entertainment companies. It is amongst the largest producers and aggregators of Hindi programming in the world, with an extensive library housing over 80,000 hours of television content. With rights to more than 3,000 movie titles from foremost studios and of iconic film stars, Zee houses the world’s largest Hindi film library.

Through its strong presence worldwide, Zee entertains over 500 million viewers across 167 countries.

Pioneer of television entertainment industry in India, Zee’s well known brands include Zee TV, Zee Cinema, Zee Premier, Zee Action, Zee Classic, Ten Sports, Ten Cricket, Ten Action+, Zee Cafe, Zee Studio, Zee Trendz, Zee Khana Khazana, Zee Salaam, Zee Jagran, Zing, ETC Music and ETC Punjabi. The company also has a strong offering in the regional language domain with channels such as Zee Marathi, Zee Bangla, Zee Telugu, Zee Kannada, Zee Talkies and Zee Cinemalu.

The Zee stable owns an integrated range of businesses. All of these in singularity adhere to the content-to-consumer value chain model of media and entertainment business. Zee is a pioneer in every aspect of content aggregation and distribution through traditional media like satellite and cable and new media like the internet, in India.

Essel Group

Essel Group is among India’s most prominent business houses with a diverse portfolio of assets in media, packaging, entertainment, technology-enabled services, infrastructure development and education. The Group started business in 1976 with a commodity trading and export firm, Rama Associates Limited, and has since then metamorphosed into a conglomerate that is a symbol of the ingenuity and power of Indian entrepreneurship, with worldwide operations and a workforce of nearly 8,000 dedicated employees.

Last Updated on June 10, 2015