BBC announces restructure to India operations – Saudi Gazette

BBC announces restructure to India operations – Saudi Gazette

LONDON — The BBC is restructuring its operations in India to comply with the country's foreign investment rules.Four employees will leave the BBC to form a wholly Indian-owned company, Collective Newsroom, containing the BBC's six Indian language services.The broadcaster's English language newsgathering operation in India will remain with the BBC.It follows an investigation this year which saw the BBC's India offices searched by tax authorities.Foreign funding for digital news companies based in India was capped at 26% under new regulatory requirements.The change effectively means any company publishing digital news content in the country must be majority-owned by Indian nationals.Rupa Jha, currently the head of India at the BBC, will lead Collective Newsroom alongside Mukesh Sharma, Sanjoy Majumder and Sara Hassan.Staff working in the six language services -- BBC Gujarati, BBC Hindi, BBC Marathi, BBC Punjabi, BBC Tamil and BBC Telugu -- will join the four in the new company, as will members of the BBC India YouTube channel in English."Audiences in India can be assured that the BBC's Indian language services and unique range of quality output will inform, educate and entertain audiences across our diverse and highly engaged country under the agreement between the BBC and Collective Newsroom," Ms