TV Today Network has appointed Nalin Mehta as Managing Editor for English news channel Headlines Today. Mehta, who joined office today, will be based in Delhi. He replaces Rahul Kanwal who has been made Editor-at-large for both Headlines Today and and Hindi news channel Aaj Tak.
Mehta began his career as a television journalist with Zee News when it launched India’s first 24-hour news channel in Hindi. He subsequently became a political correspondent and anchor with NDTV. After finishing his PhD, he returned to journalism as Deputy News Editor and primetime anchor with Times Now.
After quitting Times Now in 2008, Mehta has been a consultant with Headlines Today and contributed columns to the Indian Express, The Times of India and several other publications. From 2008-2012 Mehta worked on international development issues with the United Nations Development Program and then the Global Fund in Geneva. During this time, he also held fellowships with the International Olympic Committee’s Olympic Museum in Lausanne, Switzerland; Australian National University, Canberra; La Trobe University, Melbourne and the Institute of South Asian Studies, National University of Singapore.
An award-winning writer and social scientist, Mehta has covered Indian politics for over a decade as a broadcast journalist and published widely on politics, media and sports history. His first book India on television, ‘How Satellite Channels have changed the way we think and act’ (New Delhi: HarperCollins, 2008), was awarded the 2009 Asian Publishing Award for Best Book. Most recently, he has co-authored the best-selling ‘Sellotape Legacy: Delhi and the Commonwealth Games’ (New Delhi: HarperCollins, 2010).
His books also include a critical social history of Indian sport, ‘Olympics: The India Story’, with Boria Majumdar (New Delhi: HarperCollins, 2008), republished as ‘India and the Olympics’ (London/NY: Routledge, 2009). Mehta has edited ‘Television in India: Satellites, Politics and Cultural Change’ (London: Routledge, 2008; Delhi: 2009), and co-edited ‘The Changing Face of Cricket: From Imperial to Global Game’ (London: Routledge, 2010). He has just finished co-editing a volume on social and political change in Gujarat in the 50 years since its creation as a separate state in 1960, titled ‘Gujarat beyond Gandhi: Identity, Conflict and Society’ (London/Delhi: Routledge: 2010, forthcoming).
