Media mogul Ted Turner, who's as comfortable running a restaurant venture 'Ted's Montana Grill' as being a television tycoon, is in India after a gap of more than two decades.
NEW DELHI: Media mogul Ted Turner, who's as comfortable running a restaurant venture 'Ted's Montana Grill' as being a television tycoon, is in India after a gap of more than two decades.
In 1982, he had come to the country for the first time: that was just two years after he had launched the first cable TV dedicated to world news, CNN. Media business must have been on top of his mind during his '82 trip, as India too got a taste of cable TV and
CNN within a few years of Turner's first visit.
This is only his second visit to the country, and he's not thinking business, one is told. This time around, it's full-time philanthropy, well almost!
Turner, who was earlier married to celebrity and health guru Jane Fonda, is busy hopping from one meeting to another, from one public function to the next, and of course dividing his time between all important private dos. Government, business and NGO leaders are all on his meeting list.
On Wednesday, UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi even delivered the keynote address at a UN Foundation session, which was attended by industrialists, social activists and prominent professionals along with the Foundation chairman Ted Turner.
She thanked Turner's generosity "that has led to the establishment of the UN Foundation". Ted donated $1 billion to support UN causes in 1998. Infosys chairman and chief mentor NR Narayanamurthy, who's now a board member of the UN Foundation, attended the session as well. The theme of the session was 'public-private partnership in the social sector'.
Nobel laureate Amartya Sen will meet the CNN founder at a public forum on Thursday. They'll discuss the future of democracy and its challenges. West Bengal governor Gopalkrishna Gandhi will moderate the session. Ted will also attend conferences on HIV/AIDS and climate change, among others.
Now that TV news is such a big business in India, have the television bigwigs of the country made a beeline to meet him during his visit? "This visit is strictly for the UN Foundation," was the official reply. However, some newspaper editors have already had one-on-one with the media baron.
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