Nationality Indian Years active 1985–present Party Shiv Sena | Occupation Journalist Children Om Raut | |
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Born 6 April 1953 (age 63) ( 1953-04-06 ) Mumbai Notable work Launched India's first news channel – Zee News Spouse(s) Neena Raut (married 23 May 1979) Education Master of Arts, Tilak Maharashtra Vidyapeeth | ||
Bharatkumar Raut (born 6 April 1953) is a former member of Parliament representing Maharashtra in the Rajya Sabha, the upper house of the Indian Parliament. He practiced journalism for over four decades. He worked in English and Marathi newspapers, Government and private television channels in India and abroad.
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He was the Editor of Maharashtra Times, consultant Times of India Group and the Editorial Director of Lokmat Media Group.
Early life
Born in a middle class Maharashtrian family Bharatkumar Raut had his schooling in Mumbai. While doing his post-graduation in Political Studies, Mr. Raut joined Print journalism but soon shifed to Television, when Doordarshan, the government-owned TV channel, was launched in Mumbai. He worked for Marathi and later English news bulletins.
Education
Bharatkumar Raut completed his M.A. (Politics) from University of Bombay,Mumbai. and done his PhD from Tilak Maharashtra Vidyapeeth, Pune.
Career
He worked for Marathi and later English news bulletins. During his five-year stint in Doordarshan, he anchored many news-based programmes, chat shows, youth programmes, etc. He also had the opportunity to interview international personalities viz. Sheikh Mujibur Rahman of Bangladesh, Robert McNamara of World Bank etc.
He later shifted to The Times of India Group, where he worked for Maharashtra Times, a Marathi language daily and Evening New of India as a reporter. However, in his second comeback to the group, he became the Executive Editor of The Independent and The Metropolis on Saturday and also of E-Times. During his tenure as Editor of Maharashtra Times, the paper became the highest selling Marathi daily in Mumbai metropolitan area as per survey.
Mr. Raut was also Resident Editor of The Pioneer .
He joined Zee TV Network in 1996 and was instrumental in the launch of Zee News. As a Creative Director of Zee Network, Mr. Raut traveled extensively in Europe and United States, to launch Zee on the foreign land.
He was the President of Mumbai Marathi Patrakar Sangh, an association of Marathi speaking journalists in Mumbai in 1987–88, when the foundation stone of the multi-storeyed Patrakar Bhavan was laid.