Network18 ropes in Nirupama Rao as independent director

New Delhi: Former foreign secretary Nirupama Rao was today appointed as an independent director on the board of Network18, the Mukesh Ambani-led firm that owns television channels CNN-IBN and CNBC-TV18.[caption id=“attachment_406182” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  Nirupama Rao. AP [/caption] With this appointment, Network18 Media & Investments will meet the Sebi rule of having at least one woman director on board before 1 April, this year. “The Board of Directors in its meeting held on March 25, inter alia, has considered and approved the appointment of Nirupama Rao as Non-Executive Independent Director of the company,” Network18 said in a regulatory filing. Rao, a 1973 batch Indian Foreign Service (IFS) officer, was India’s foreign secretary for two years from August 2009 to July 2011. She was also India’s Ambassador to the United States before superannuation from services in November 2013. The Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) had asked all listed companies to have at least one woman director on their boards before 1 April 2015. Ambani’s Reliance Industries had last year taken over Network18 Media and Investments Limited. Network18 owns TV channels (including CNBC-TV18, CNN-IBN, CNBC-Awaaz), websites (firstpost.com, moneycontrol.com), magazines (including the licence for Forbes India), entertainment channel (Colors, MTV and Homeshop18) among other businesses. At present, the company has Adil Zainulbhai, Deepak Parekh, Rajiv Luthra and Dhruv Kaji as independent directors. Disclosure: Firstpost is part of Network18 Media & Investment Limited which is owned by Reliance Industries Limited. PTI