Asianet News Media & Entertainment Pvt. Ltd. (AMEL) – has announced that Mr. Rajesh Kalra, Veteran Journalist, Pioneering internet entrepreneur and one of the earliest leaders of India’s Digital Media charge, will be joining it’s Board and be its Executive Chairman.
AMEL has multiple digital brands in its portfolio including asianetnews.com, indigomusic.com etc and serves consumers in multiple languages.
Kalra was the Chief Editor of Times Internet, the repository of everything digital of The Times of India Group, India’s largest media house, from June 2006 to August 2020. He was also an entrepreneur from 2000-2006 when his company managed the dynamic portions of websites such as Yahoo India, MSN India, Mantra Online and started India’s first 24*7 news website, NaradOnline.
During his stint at Times Internet, where he became the youngest Chief Editor at the age of 40, he was instrumental in the launch of almost all the news and entertainment properties of the group – TOI, ET, Mumbai Mirror, Bangalore Mirror, Ahmedabad Mirror, Pune Mirror, NBT, MT, Indiatimes, Ei Samay, I am Gujarat, Vijay Karnataka and the three Samayam properties (Telugu, Tamil, Malayalam).
Kalra started his career with the computer publication, Dataquest and thereafter had stints with the print editions of the Times of India, Business Standard and The Economic Times.
His move to digital happened after ET, when he became the first Editor of Times Interactive in 1999, before he moved on as an entrepreneur.
Kalra is an avid sportsperson, a trained high-altitude mountaineer, a marathoner and a mountain biker who has ridden twice from Manali to Leh. He has been the member of the prestigious Prime Minister’s Olympic Task Force and the All India Council of Sports. He is also a non-motorised transport evangelist and is a founder Trustee of the ‘Raahgiri’ Foundation.
