India’s tiger population is up 16%, but the number of paper tigers on the India Today power list of 2011 is down 20% from last year. From a high of ten in 2006, the number of media barons on the annual ranking stands at five.
Samir Jain and Vineet Jain of The Times of India group are at no. 4 (up from no.8 last year); Kalanidhi Maran of Sun TV is at no. 20 (down from no. 16); Raghav Bahl of Network 18 is at no. 25 (down from no. 17); Mahendra Mohan Gupta and Sanjay Gupta of Dainik Jagran are at no. 31 (up from no. 33); and Rajeev Chandrasekhar of Asianet News and Suvarna News is at no. 34 (up from 37).
But as usual, the POAPs (points of anticipated pleasure) are on page 3:
# The Jains have professionalised the brand management with five CEOs, involving themselves only in key strategic decisions. Samir Jain prefers yoga, Vineet loves to gym.
# Kalanidhi Maran has grown a moustache after remaining clean shaven for many years. He loves Apple products, buying the iPad2 on day one, and prefers Chinese food.
# When Raghav Bahl went to present a copy of his China book to the prime minister, Manmohan Singh said: ‘Oh, we’ve come to expect pioneering things from you.” Bahl is Imran Khan‘s uncle-in-law, his niece Avantika having married the actor.
# Mahendra Mohan Gupta prefers a Santro car, while Sanjay Gupta drives a Mercedes.
# Rajeev Chandrasekhar is slated to launch an English channel in south India. His favourite line is one uttered by the rapper Eminem: “I’m not afraid to take a stand.”
Photograph via Facebook
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