Eleven media professionals—editors, publishers, promoters, proprietors—figure in the Indian Express list of the 100 most powerful Indians in 2009.
Eight of them have a presence in newspapers, three in television, only one is from the magazine sphere. Four of the 11 are from the language press.
The IE ranking also lists the quirks and kinks of the bold faced names, including those of the media pros.
# 50: Vineet Jain and Samir Jain, owners, The Times of India group: “Vineet likes going to discos, Samir often visits a spiritual retreat close to Haridwar.”
# 58: N. Ram, editor-in-chief, The Hindu: “He has an air-conditioned aviary at home. He is crazy about tennis and cricket.”
# 61: Prannoy Roy, co-founder, New Delhi Television (NDTV): “Accompanies his 85-year-old father to India’s cricket matches, this week in New Zealand.”
# 70: Raghav Bahl, managing director, Network 18: “The figure 18 in the company’s title is a lucky charm.”
#71: Prabhu Chawla, editor, India Today: “A sharp dresser, he has a tie fetish and possesses a wide range of designer ties.”
# 73: Shobhana Bhartia, vice-chairman, The Hindustan Times group: “Her friends swear by her. She is known to be the most loyal of friends.”
# 76: Mahendra Mohan Gupta, CMD, and Sanjay Gupta, CEO and editor, Dainik Jagran: “M.M. Gupta hangs out at a chaiwala‘s when in Kanpur. Sanjay likes the colour blue.”
# 77: Aveek Sarkar, editor-in-chief, Anand Bazaar Patrika group: “He is always impeccably turned out in a white starched dhoti at social dos.”
# 88: Ramesh Chandra Agarwal, chairman, Dainik Bhaskar group: “He loves eating chaat in Bhopal’s Chowk area. He is good at number crunching.”
Also read: Forbes can name India’s second richest woman
IJR 
What an odd assortment! What are lesser people like us supposed to learn from this bunch?