Biography
Arnab Goswami (born 7 March 1973) is an Indian news anchor and journalist, who is the managing director and editor-in-chief of Republic Media Network. Goswami’s Republic Media Network presently owns and operates three channels namely Republic TV in English. Republic Bharat in Hindi and Republic Bangla in Bengali.
Before Republic TV, Goswami was the editor-in-chief and a news anchor of Times Now. And ET Now, from 2006 to 2016. Previously, he had also served stints at NDTV and The Telegraph. On Times Now, he anchored The Newshour, a live debate at 9 pm (IST) weekdays, which propelled him to widespread fame.
He also hosted a special television programme Frankly Speaking with Arnab. In November 2016, Goswami resigned as editor-in-chief of Times Now. His news channel Republic TV was launched in May 2017.
Early life and family
Family
Goswami was born in Guwahati, Assam on 7 March 1973 in an Assamese family of Manoranjan Goswami and Suprabha Gain-Goswami. His father, Manoranjan Goswami joined the Indian Army in the early 1960s and retired as a colonel after serving in the army for nearly 30 years. The couple has a son, Che Goswami, named after the revolutionary Che Guevara.
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Upon retirement, he joined the Bharatiya Janata Party and was the party’s unsuccessful candidate in 1998 Lok Sabha Polls for the Guwahati constituency. He wrote various columns, books and was the recipient of the Asam Sahitya Sabha Award in 2017. Arnab’s mother, Suprabha Gain-Goswami is an author.
His paternal grandfather Rajani Kanta Goswami was a lawyer. His maternal grandfather, Gaurisankar Bhattacharyya, was an elected legislator from the Communist Party of India and served as the leader of the opposition in Assam for many years.
Goswami’s maternal uncle, Siddhartha Bhattacharya is a member of the Assam Legislative Assembly for the BJP from Gauhati East constituency. He headed the Assam unit of BJP until 2015. Goswami is married to Samyabrata Ray Goswami. She is also a journalist and a co-owner of Republic TV. The couple has a son, Che Goswami, named after the revolutionary Che Guevara.
Education
An army officer’s son, Goswami attended schools across various parts of India. He passed his 10th Standard board exams from St Mary’s School in Delhi Cantonment and his 12th Standard board exams from Kendriya Vidyalaya in Jabalpur Cantonment. Goswami has a Bachelor’s degree in Sociology from the Hindu College in Delhi University.
In 1994 Goswami completed his Master’s in Social Anthropology from St. Antony’s College, at Oxford University. Where he was a Felix Scholar. In the year 2000, Arnab was a Visiting DC Pavate Fellow at the International Studies Department at Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge University.
Goswami’s Career
The Telegraph and NDTV
Goswami started his career with The Telegraph in Kolkata, as a journalist. Less than a year later, he moved to Delhi and joined NDTV.
Goswami was a part of NDTV from 1996 to 2006. At NDTV, he anchored daily newscasts including News Tonight, a program telecast on DD Metro. Newsnight, hosted by Goswami, won him an award for the Best News Anchor of Asia 2004 in the 2004 Asian Television Awards.
Times Now
In 2006, Goswami left NDTV to join the newly launched Times Now news channel, as its editor-in-chief.
His show The Newshour was aired at 9 pm with live news coverage and featured notable personalities such as Parvez Musharraf. He also hosted a special programme, Frankly Speaking with Arnab, which has featured personalities such as Benazir Bhutto. And former UK Prime Minister Gordon Brown, Afghanistan President Hamid Karzai, retired head of state of the Tibetan Government in Exile. The Dalai Lama and former United States Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. Goswami was the first television anchor to interview Prime Minister Narendra Modi after he took office in 2014.
Goswami resigned as editor-in-chief of Times Now on 1 November 2016 citing editorial differences, lack of journalistic freedom and newsroom politics. He hosted the last edition of his flagship shows The Newshour Debate, a fortnight later.
Incidentally, the Newshour has been subject to an ongoing investigation by Ofcom, the UK government-approved regulatory authority for broadcasting, during the months of August and September and it went on to hold Times Now guilty of violating the impartiality clause of its broadcast code.
Republic TV
Republic TV was funded in part by Asianet, which in turn was primarily funded by Rajeev Chandrasekhar. A then-independent member of Rajya Sabha who had intricate links with the Bharatiya Janata Party. And was vice-chairman of the National Democratic Alliance in Kerala. Rajeev later announced his resignation as the director on the board of ARG Outlier Asianet News Pvt Ltd. The company that owns Republic TV.
He stated that he took this decision since he officially joined the BJP and it was in the best interest of Republic TV’s brand and a team that he no longer serves on the board. Among other major investors were Goswami, his wife, educationists Ramdas Pai and Ramakanta Panda—all of whom invested through SARG Media Holding Private Ltd.
Goswami was the managing director as well as the Editor-in-Chief; the channel was launched on 6 May 2017 as a free-to-air channel. Chitra Subramaniam was roped in as the editorial adviser and numerous personas associated with Times Now in various roles joined the channel.
