Bennett, Coleman and Company Limited, (abbreviated as B.C.C.L. and

d/b/a A trade name, trading name, or business name, is a pseudonym used by companies that do not operate under their registered company name. The term for this type of alternative name is a "fictitious" business name. Registering the fictitious name w ...

The Times Group), is an Indian

media conglomerate A media conglomerate, media group, or media institution is a company that owns numerous companies involved in mass media enterprises, such as music, television, radio, publishing, motion pictures, theme parks, or the Internet. According to th ...

headquartered in

Mumbai Mumbai (, ; also known as Bombay — List of renamed Indian cities and states#Maharashtra, the official name until 1995) is the capital city of the Indian States and union territories of India, state of Maharashtra and the ''de facto'' fin ...

, Maharashtra. The company remains a

family-owned business A family business is a commercial organization in which decision-making is influenced by multiple generations of a family, related by blood or marriage or adoption, who has both the ability to influence the vision of the business and the willin ...

with

Sahu Jain family The Sahu Jain family is an industrial family of India. They own Bennett, Coleman & Co. Ltd. (commonly known as The Times Group), which owns ''The Times of India'', the most-circulated English newspaper in the world. The members of the extended ...

owning a majority stake in The Times Group.

History

On 3 November 1838, the ''Bombay Times and Journal of Commerce'' was first published, a predecessor of what would become ''The Times of India''. While starting as a biweekly paper, it was converted to a daily in 1850. In 1859 the paper was merged with two other papers into the ''Bombay Times and Standard'' under editor Robert Knight. Two years later, in 1861, the paper got a more national scope with the title ''The Times of India''. Subsequently the paper saw its ownership change several times until 1892 when an English journalist named

Thomas Jewell Bennett Sir Thomas Jewell Bennett (16 May 1852 in Wisbech – 16 January 1925 in Hans Place, London) was a British journalist and Conservative Party politician. He is most notable as an editor of ''The Times of India'', as well as its principal propriet ...

along with Frank Morris Coleman (who later drowned in the 1915 sinking of the SS ''Persia'') acquired the newspaper through their new joint stock company, ''Bennett, Coleman & Co. Ltd''. (BCCL). At the time, some 800 people were employed by the paper. The company, by that time consolidated in the Times of India Group, was taken over from its British owners in 1946 by industrialist Ramkrishna Dalmia. Ramkrishna Dalmia (7 April 1893 – 26 September 1978) was a pioneer industrialist and founder of the Dalmia-Jain group or

Dalmia Group Dalmia Bharat Group, (DBG) is an Indian conglomerate company, which trace their origin to the businesses established by ''Ramkrishna Dalmia'' and Jaidayal Dalmia. The Dalmia brothers established a business conglomerate in eastern India, in the ...

and The Times Group. The name is variously written as Ram Krishan Dalmia and Ram Kishan Dalmia. In 1947, Dalmia engineered the acquisition of the media giant Bennett, Coleman by transferring monies from a bank and an insurance company of which he was the Chairman. In 1955, this came to the attention of the socialist parliamentarian

Feroze Gandhi Feroze Gandhi (born Feroze Jehangir Ghandy;: "Feroze Gandhi was also from the Nehrus' home town, Allahabad. A Parsi by faith, he at first spelt his surname 'Ghandy'. However, after he joined the national movement as a young man, he changed th ...

who was part of the ruling Congress party headed by his estranged father-in-law

Jawaharlal Nehru Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru (; ; ; 14 November 1889 – 27 May 1964) was an Indian anti-colonial nationalist, secular humanist, social democrat— * * * * and author who was a central figure in India during the middle of the 20t ...

. In December 1955, he raised the matter in the

Parliament In modern politics, and history, a parliament is a legislative body of government. Generally, a modern parliament has three functions: representing the electorate, making laws, and overseeing the government via hearings and inquiries. Th ...

, documenting extensively the various fund transfers and intermediaries through which the acquisition had been financed. The case was investigated by the

Vivian Bose Justice Vivian Bose (also rendered V. V. N. Bose) (9 June 1891 – 29 November 1983), Judge of the Supreme Court of India, served as the National Commissioner of the Bharat Scouts and Guides from November 1957 to November 1959. Scouting for ...

Commission of Inquiry. In the court case that followed, where he was represented by the leading British attorney Sir Dingle Mackintosh Foot, he was sentenced to two years in

Tihar Jail Tihar Prisons, also called Tihar Jail and Tihar Ashram, is a prison complex in India and the largest complex of prisons in South Asia. Run by Department of Delhi Prisons, Government of Delhi, the prison contains nine central prisons, and is one ...

. But for most of the jail term he managed to spend in hospital. Upon his release his son-in-law

Sahu Shanti Prasad Jain Sahu Shanti Prasad Jain was an Indian industrialist and philanthropist. He was the son-in-law of Ramkrishna Dalmia and former chairman of Bennett, Coleman. His family, Sahu Jains, owns the Times of India newspaper group. Early age and edu ...

to whom he had entrusted running of Bennett, Coleman & Co. Ltd. rebuffed his efforts to resume command of the company. During his time in prison the company was run by his son-in-law Sahu Shanti Prasad Jain. Jain would buy the company a few years later and the company would be primarily run by his family in the years after. The company expanded its presence in the

Indian media The Indian media consists of several different types of communications of mass media: television, radio, Cinema of India, cinema, Newspaper, newspapers, magazines, and Internet-based Websites/portals. Indian media was active since the late 18th ...

sphere by founding different papers and local editions of ''The Times of India''.

Decline and revival

The Times of India press published a number of influential English (e.g.

Illustrated Weekly of India ''The Illustrated Weekly of India'' was an English-language weekly newsmagazine publication in India. It started publication in 1880 (as ''Times of India'' Weekly Edition; later renamed as ''The Illustrated Weekly of India'' in 1923) and ceasin ...

1880-1993) and Hindi magazines (e.g.

Dharmyug ''Dharmyug'' was a Hindi pictorial weekly published by The Times of India Group from year 1949 till 1993. History The magazine was originally published by a Dalmia press in Bombay from 1949, just after independence of India, however it incor ...

1949-1997, Sarika,

Dinaman ''Dinaman'' was a Hindi language weekly magazine founded in 1965. It was published in New Delhi. The newsweekly was started by Sachchidananda Hirananda Vatsyayan 'Ajneya', a pioneer of modern Hindi poetry and writing. His Assistant Editors were ...

1965-1990s, Parag 1958-1990s), edited by distinguished authors including

Khushwant Singh Khushwant Singh (born Khushal Singh, 2 February 1915 – 20 March 2014) was an Indian author, lawyer, diplomat, journalist and politician. His experience in the 1947 Partition of India inspired him to write ''Train to Pakistan'' in 1956 (made ...

Dharmveer Bharti Dharamvir Bharati (25 December 1926 – 4 September 1997) was a renowned Hindi poet, author, playwright and a social thinker of India. He was the chief editor of the popular Hindi weekly magazine '' Dharmayug'', from 1960 till 1987.The Illustr ...

Agyeya Sachchidananda Hirananda Vatsyayan (7 March 1911 – 4 April 1987), popularly known by his pen name Agyeya (also transliterated Ajneya, meaning 'the unknowable'), was an Indian writer, poet, novelist, literary critic, journalist, translator ...

and

Sarveshwar Dayal Saxena Sarveshwar Dayal Saxena (15 September 1927 – 23 September 1983) was a Hindi writer, poet, columnist and playwright. He was one of the seven poets who first published in one of the " Tar Saptaks", which ushered in the ‘Prayogvaad’ (Experiment ...

. However, the organisation faced financial difficulties, and most of them were closed down during the 1990s. The sons of Sahu Ashok Jain, Sahu

Samir Jain Samir Jain (born 11 March 1954) is an Indian publisher and the Vice-Chairman and Managing Director (VCMD) of Bennett, Coleman & Co. Ltd., also known as The Times Group, a leading media conglomerate with its primary base of operations in India, ...

and

Vineet Jain Vineet Kumar Jain is the Managing Director of Bennett, Coleman & Co. Ltd. (B.C.C.L.), commonly known as The Times Group, India's largest media group. He runs B.C.C.L along with his brother Samir Jain Samir Jain (born 11 March 1954) is an ...

are credited with reviving the financial success of the group with newer and more profitable ventures.

Assets

Publications

The Times of India ''The Times of India'', also known by its abbreviation ''TOI'', is an Indian English-language daily newspaper and digital news media owned and managed by The Times Group. It is the third-largest newspaper in India by circulation and largest ...

, largest circulation of any English-language newspaper in the world, with 2.8 million copies. *

The Economic Times ''The Economic Times'' is an Indian English-language business-focused daily newspaper. It is owned by The Times Group. ''The Economic Times'' began publication in 1961. As of 2012, it is the world's second-most widely read English-language bu ...

Navbharat Times ''Navbharat Times'' (NBT) a Hindi newspaper distributed in Delhi, Mumbai, Lucknow and Kanpur. It is from the stable of Bennett, Coleman & Co. Ltd (BCCL), which also publishes other dailies including ''The Times of India'', ''The Economic Ti ...

Maharashtra Times ''Maharashtra Times'' ( mr, महाराष्ट्र टाइम्स), colloquially referred to as 'Ma Ta' (मटा) from its Marathi initialism, is a Marathi newspaper based in Mumbai, India. It is one of the largest selling daily ...

Ei Samay ''Ei Samay Sangbadpatra'' () is a Bengali-language daily newspaper from The Times Group. It was launched as a broadsheet daily newspaper with a motive to enter into a head-to-head competition with ''Anandabazar Patrika''. It is owned and pub ...

* Mumbai Mirror *

Vijaya Karnataka ''Vijaya Karnataka'' is a Kannada newspaper published from a number of cities in Karnataka. The newspaper is published from Bengaluru, Hubballi, Mangaluru, Shivamogga, Kalaburagi, Gangavathi, Belagavi, Davanagere, Hassan, Chitradurga. It wa ...

Television channels

The Times Group owns the following channels.

Times Business Solutions Limited

Times Business Solutions – A division of Times Internet Limited is a limited company, wholly owned by Bennett Coleman Company Limited (The Times Group). TBS develops

web sites A website (also written as a web site) is a collection of web pages and related content that is identified by a common domain name and published on at least one web server. Examples of notable websites are Google, Facebook, Amazon, and Wikip ...

within areas such as recruitment,

real estate Real estate is property consisting of land and the buildings on it, along with its natural resources such as crops, minerals or water; immovable property of this nature; an interest vested in this (also) an item of real property, (more general ...

and matrimonials such as SimplyMarry.com. TBS started as a division of BCCL in 2004 with the mission to create an exchange for job seekers and employers on the internet. With the growth of internet attaining rapid speed and being a highly profitable venture, Times Business Solutions – A division of Times Internet Limited was born as the "''Internet Initiatives''" of BCCL. Times Group, others put $20 million into

Square Yards In Euclidean geometry, a square is a regular quadrilateral, which means that it has four equal sides and four equal angles (90- degree angles, π/2 radian angles, or right angles). It can also be defined as a rectangle with two equal-length a ...

in Sep 2019.

Times Internet

Times Internet is an Indian company which owns, operates and invests in various Internet-led products, services and technology.

Radio Mirchi

Radio Mirchi is a nationwide network of private FM radio stations in

India India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Times Group Radio broadcasting companies of India Newspaper companies of India Companies based in Mumbai Publishing companies established in 1838 1838 establishments in British India British companies established in 1838 Indian brands . Entertainment companies of India Film production companies based in Mumbai Television broadcasting companies of India Television production companies of India Television stations in Mumbai Entertainment companies established in 1838 Television networks in India Television stations in Delhi Television stations in New Delhi Mass media companies based in Mumbai Mass media companies established in 1838