Supriya Sahu
Supriya Sahu (born 27 July 1968) is a senior Indian bureaucrat of Additional Secretary[2] rank from the 1991 batch of Indian Administrative Service. She is currently posted as Principal Secretary-cum-Managing Director of The Tamil Nadu Small Tea Growers’ Industrial Cooperative Tea Factories’ Federation Limited (INDCOSERVE) in Coonoor.[3] Earlier, Sahu served as the Director-General of Doordarshan between July 2016[4] to September 2017.[5] Her appointment as head of Doordarshan was cleared by the Appointments Committee of the Cabinet chaired by the Prime Minister Narendra Modi. She was also the Co-Vice President of Asian Broadcasting Union, and was elected to the post at the 55th General Assembly of ABU.[6]
Supriya Sahu | |
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Born | [1] | 27 July 1968
Nationality | Indian |
Alma mater | University of Lucknow |
Occupation | Indian Administrative Service |
Organization | The Tamilnadu Small Tea Growers’ Industrial Cooperative Tea Factories’ Federation Limited - The Indcoserve |
Title | Current: Principal Secretary and Managing Director
Previous: Director-General, Doordarshan Co-Vice President, Asia-Pacific Broadcasting Union Joint Secretary, Ministry of Information & Broadcasting |
Term | Current: October 2019 to till date |
Career
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Earlier, she worked as a Joint Secretary,[7] Ministry of Information & Broadcasting, Government of India. Before central deputation, she served as Additional Collector of Vellore district and Managing Director,[8] Tamil Nadu State AIDS Control Society (TANSACS). On 25 October 2016, she was elected[9] as the new vice-president of the Asia-Pacific Broadcasting Union.
In February 2016, she was selected by Prasar Bharati, India's public service broadcaster, to be the Director General of state broadcaster[10] Doordarshan after which the broadcaster had recommended her name to the information & broadcasting (I&B) ministry for approval. Sahu has earlier served as the director at I&B ministry and later got promoted to the post of Joint Secretary.[11]
In early 2018, she was appointed Acting President of Asia-Pacific Broadcasting Union (ABU), which she handed over to the new President in October 2018.[12] She is also the first women Vice-President of ABU.
The INDCOSERVE
As Managing Director, INDCOSERVE, Sahu led the transformation of cooperative through initiatives to enhance the income of tea growers[13] and increasing tea cooperatives' brand recognition.[14] Nearly 30,000 small tea growers are likely to benefit from the initiative. Cooperative also started the practice of fixing in advance the green tea leaf prices grown by the small tea growers. Tea farmers received all time high price for green leaves in August 2020.
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For marketing of the tea produced by the farmers' cooperative, Sahu started a unique initiative called 'Tea Vandis' where the produce is marketed by tribes of The Nilgiris district.[15] Under this initiative, INDCOSERVE provides a food truck to Toda tribal communities. Currently, four 'Vandis' are operational at different vantage points in Ooty[16] district. Sahu inaugurated 'INDCO Tea House' to popularise and market variety of tea manufactured by farmers' cooperative.[17]
The cooperative launched six new tea manufacturers - Nilgiris Kahwa Tea, Honey Hill Tea, Marlimund Tea, Bedford Tea, Mountain Rose Gold Tea and Ooty Gold Tea.[18] Earlier, INDCOSERVE advertised only mud-grade tea or Ooty Tea. These products will also be sold through e-commerce platforms Amazon and Flipkart.
The cooperative also launched a drive to rope in small tea farmers to adopt organic farming by launching ‘Scope Certification’, at the Kinnakorai Industrial Cooperative.[19] After continuously practicing organic farming for three years, farmers will be awarded 'organic certificate' for their tea produce.
Revenue
During Sahu's tenure as Director-General of Doordarshan, the public broadcaster's revenues increased[20] to Rs 827.51 during the financial year 2016–17. It surpassed its annual target of Rs 800 crore and posted a growth of Rs 318.06 crore if compared to the previous financial year. In order to increase its revenue, Doordarshan started adopting new strategies including the auction of slots on DD Freedish[21] and planned to auction its prime time slots.[22] In 2018, Doordarshan also recorded its top viewership on Republic Day i.e. 38 million viewers on a single day. In April 2019, she announced that Doordarshan had recorded its highest revenue in the last five years, was no longer a loss-making organisation.[23] In 2014–15, Doordarshan reported a net collection of Rs 884.2 crore, whereas in 2018–19, it hasgone up to Rs 943.8 crore.
Programming
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Besides, Doordarshan has started various new programming initiatives under her leadership. It includes Doordarshan launching two new science channels i.e. DD Science and India Science.[24] These channels aim to boost scientific temperament among the people. Two channels will have science-based documentaries, studio-based discussions, virtual walkthroughs of scientific institutions, interviews and short films and will be free to access. In December 2018, Supriya Sahu launched DD Roshni,[25] an educational channel as part of its partnership with Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike and Microsoft. DD has launched ‘Mahila Kisan Awards’, a reality show[26] that tells the stories of unsung women heroes of Indian agriculture.
Doordarshan also launched Kashmiri version of Kaun Banega Crorepati, which will be broadcast on DD Kashir with vernacular name Kus Bani Koshur Karorpaet.[27] The show will be produced by Studio Next of Sony Pictures who hold the licence to produce the KBC format in India.[28]
New technology
Under Sahu's leadership, Doordarshan started digital terrestrial transmission (DTT) and is planning to expand the services to 16 cities by 2017.[29] There were reports in January 2018 that Doordarshan was planning to develop its own Over-the-Top (OTT) content platform to reach out to audiences across the globe.[30] Doordarshan was said to be in talks with other content platforms to put their content out in public.
Community Radio
She has also been credited for giving a shape and direction to India's Community Radio movement. It was under her leadership that Community Radio was included in the 12th Five Year Plan[31] of India. During her period, the Ministry of I&B, opened the doors and increased engagement with the Community Radio sector. Her initiatives include annual National Community Radio Sammelan - the annual conclave of stations, and an annual publication on the work of Community Radio stations - Community Radio Compendium. Second National Community Radio Sammelan also saw the use of social media by the government,[32] when the ministry of I&B live-tweeted the event on Twitter.
HIV/ AIDS and Tuberculosis
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She has also spearheaded Tamil Nadu's HIV and tuberculosis programmes. As Project Director, Tamil Nadu State AIDS Control Society, she initiated the integrated TB and HIV testing programme in the state.[33] During her tenure, the state started providing a comprehensive package of HIV/AIDS services to private maternity hospitals in the state in an effort to match services provided at government-run maternity hospitals. It included counseling, treatment, the prevention of mother-to-child transmission and managing HIV/TB coinfection. In 2006, she launched a joint initiative for orphaned and vulnerable children affected by HIV/AIDS.[34] In 2008, during her tenure as PD of TANSACS, she took the lead in enabling sensitisation of the police department across cadres and districts of Tamil Nadu on issues of groups marginalised on account of their sexuality and gender identity. This successful programme was carried out with the involvement of community members involved in the HIV/AIDS targeted intervention programme working with men who have sex with men (MSM) and transgender women (TG). [35]
Operation Blue Mountain Campaign
She is known for her pioneering work in protecting the environment in Nilgiris district of Tamil Nadu. She led a campaign known as 'Operation Blue Mountain',[36] to ban the use of plastic in the district. She has been hailed[37] as a hands-on collector for Operation Blue Mountain in the Nilgiris to cleanse the environment of the plastic menace. The campaign was crucial to unclog the river sources and springs in the popular hill station of Nilgiris. Her experiment with Nilgiris has been documented by erstwhile Planning Commission and UNDP as a best practice[38] on governance from Indian states. As Collector of Nilgiris district, Sahu led a campaign to mark 'International Year of the Mountains, 2002".[39] This included the creation of a world record by planting trees in one or several of the degraded shola forests. On 24 June 2003, people of Nilgiris under the leadership of Supriya Sahu planted 42,182 trees[40] — breaking the existing Guinness World Record by a large margin.
See also
References
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- Times, Economic. "Prasar Bharati board picks Doordarshan, AIR heads". Economic Times. Retrieved 4 May 2016.
- Ahluwalia, Harveen (15 June 2016). "Supriya Sahu to take over as Doordarshan director general". www.livemint.com. Retrieved 28 October 2017.
- Asia-Pacific Broadcasting Union. "Who is Who". www.abu.org.my.
- Reporter?, Staff (25 August 2020). "Tea growers seek hike in green leaves price". The Hindu. ISSN 0971-751X. Retrieved 30 January 2021.
- NewswrapIndia (18 December 2020). "30,000 small tea growers to benefit from Indcoserve's brand building exercise". NewswrapIndia. Retrieved 30 January 2021.
- Dec 1, Shantha Thyagarajan /; 2020; Ist, 20:35. "Indcoserve launches 'Tea Vandis' to market teas by tribals | Coimbatore News - Times of India". The Times of India. Retrieved 30 January 2021.CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
- "Indcoserve launches 'Tea Vandis' to market teas by tribals | Coimbatore News". 24/7 News - The Greater India Network. 1 December 2020. Retrieved 30 January 2021.
- Reporter?, Staff (21 December 2020). "INDCO Tea House inaugurated in Coonoor". The Hindu. ISSN 0971-751X. Retrieved 30 January 2021.
- "Indcoserve launches six new tea manufacturers | Coimbatore News". 24/7 News - The Greater India Network. 26 November 2020. Retrieved 30 January 2021.
- Jan 22, TNN /; 2021; Ist, 04:42. "Drive to rope in small tea growers to practise organic farming launched in Nilgiris | Coimbatore News - Times of India". The Times of India. Retrieved 30 January 2021.CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
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- India Today Web Desk New (16 January 2019). "2 science channels coming up in India to make science more popular". India Today. Retrieved 17 January 2019.
- "Doordarshan launches new educational channel DD Roshini". Indian Television Dot Com. 6 December 2018. Retrieved 17 January 2019.
- "DD Kisan launches reality show 'Mahila Kisan Awards' - TelevisionPost: Latest News, India's Television, Cable, DTH, TRAI". TelevisionPost: Latest News, India’s Television, Cable, DTH, TRAI. 15 December 2018. Retrieved 17 January 2019.
- Ashiqsrinagar, Peerzada (1 May 2019). "Local KBC version, a boost for DD Kashir[Or] DD Kashir strikes it rich with local KBC version". The Hindu. ISSN 0971-751X. Retrieved 4 May 2019.
- "Why worry". Greater Kashmir. 13 March 2015. Retrieved 4 May 2019.
- Ahluwalia, Harveen (29 December 2016). "Doordarshan to expand DTT services in partnership with private broadcasters". www.livemint.com. Retrieved 30 July 2018.
- IANS (18 January 2019). "Doordarshan plans to have its own OTT platform". Business Standard India. Retrieved 24 January 2019.
- "Frequencies that touch lives". The Hindu. 1 August 2012. Retrieved 13 June 2016.
- "I & B Ministry event live on Twitter, Facebook". www.hindustantimes.com. 18 February 2012.
- "Indian State Launches HIV/TB Testing Program". Kaiser Health News. 23 May 2008.
- "Joint initiative to tackle HIV/AIDS". The Hindu. 13 December 2006.
- "Police Sensitization on Gender/Sexual Minority issues". The Hindu. 29 February 2008.
- "Operation Blue Mountain". The HIndu. The Hindu. Retrieved 4 May 2016.
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- "Successful Governance Initiatives and Best Practices: Experiences from Indian States". Academic Foundation. 1 January 2003. Retrieved 13 June 2016.
- "DOORDARSHAN'S NEW JACKPOT! : Supriya Sahu
By Sanjay Pinto | RITZ". RITZ Magazine. 11 November 2016. Retrieved 28 October 2017. - "The Hindu: A green record". www.thehindu.com. Retrieved 13 June 2016.