Talking about the earnings of news anchors we cannot forget about their Journeys. It definitely was not a cakewalk for them. And nobody offered them their success served in a plate. This article will not only talk about the highest paid news anchors in India. But it will also talk about their individual Journeys. Starting from where they came from, how they started, the up and downs of their career, and currently at what stage they are in. However, some of them started their own news channel and some are editor-in-chief or in a high position at their firm. But most of them started their career as ground reporter. Today will get to know about their journey closely and also about their earnings. So here is the list of highest paid news anchors in India.
Arnab Goswami
estimated earning per annum: 12 crore Who doesn’t know Arnab Goswami? He is a news anchor but he himself becomes the breaking news and headline of news channels. The most controversial character in the journalism industry and a current sensation in Indian media. He has a fan base but he also has a generous amount of haters. But it is the same for every popular personality. There are some pros and cons that come with your Fame.
current position
The editor-in-chief and managing director of the Republic media network Arnab Goswami currently has two news channels one is Hindi, titled – Republic Bharat and another one is in English, titled – Republic TV. He launched Republic TV in 2017 and within three years span. We can see his graph of growth rising exponentially. He is one of the highest-paid news anchors of india. As they say, no matter you love him or hate him, but you can’t ignore him. It is also a comparatively new news channel to set records and become one of the top news channels in India.
career
At the beginning of his career, he started as a journalist in the telegraph, in Kolkata. And later he went to Delhi to join NDTV. He worked there for almost ten years from 1996 to 2006. Then in 2006 Goswami joined the newly launched Times Now news channel as its editor-in-chief. He was the anchor in the prime time show at 9:00 p.m. with his live news coverage. Arnab was also the anchor of a popular show frankly speaking with Arnab. However, he also invited many significant personalities like Benazir Bhutto, and UK Prime Minister Gordon Brown, Dalai Lama, and Hillary Clinton and many more. Fun fact, Arnab Goswami was the one who first interviewed Prime Minister Narendra Modi after he won the 2014 elections. Due to some dispute between Arnab Goswami and Times Now, he left his position as editor in Chief in 2016. And within a year he launched his own media house in collaboration with Asia net. Later in 2019 Arnab Goswami bought shares of Asianet News media and entertainment and almost gained full ownership. However, the media house released a statement saying that Arnab personally has over 82% stake in Republic TV.
Bottom Line
Anyhow, it is justifiable that he is one of the highest paid news anchors in India. Republic TV was the only news channel that remained in the top as the most-watched English news channel for 100 weeks in a row. Of course, the lion share of the credits goes to Arnab Goswami. His fierce way of reporting, highly pitched and high in energy debates, suppressing the opponent with his questions, play a major part in making him unique. Also, all the controversies and allegations linked to him play a critical factor in his popularity. Also read: Arnab Goswami exposed! Leaked WhatsApp Chats Reveal – download leaked pdf
Sudhir Chaudhary
Estimated earning per annum: 3 to 4 crores Another popular name among the media personalities is the editor-in-chief of Zee news. He is the host of the most popular prime time show of India, ‘daily news and analysis (DNA) on Zee News. He is in the journalism industry since 1993, and one of the highest-paid news anchors. One of the first generation television journalist Sudhir Chaudhary has experience of 28 years. Sudhir Chaudhary was in the Indo Pak meeting held at Islamabad in 2001, between Vajpayee and Musharraf – the then Prime Minister of both the countries.
Career
During the early days of his career, he worked in Zee News. But later in 2003, he left Zee News and joined the Sahara group. He had an instrumental role in the launch of Sahara Samay the Hindi news channel. But the Sahara group did not prosper as expected. He also worked in India TV for a short period of time. Then again in 2012, he joined Zee News as the anchor of the Prime Time show daily news and analysis.
Controversies
Not to our surprise Sudhir Chaudhary is also one of the popular journalists alleged of several wrongdoings. In 2017 sting operation run by him on Sarvodaya Kanya Vidyalaya teacher Uma Khurana brought him trouble. He was the CEO of the news channel live India at the time. In the string operation, there was a shocking Revelation about Uma Khurana. Starting from called a Pimp for forcing students into prostitution. The sting operation went viral. And as a result, the mob beat her up and then sent her to judicial custody. Sudhir Chaudhari released a statement stating that the sting operation was fake but there are weak links. One of their journalist Rashmi Singh allegedly posed as a schoolgirl to defame the teacher. The court let go of Uma Khurana. She also had registered a complaint against the media house. But they settle the matter outside of court. Other than this controversy there are many more allegations against him. there are charges against him of blackmailing. The police arrested him in 2012 November with his colleagues Sameer Ahluwalia for the charges of extortion. He had a tiff with Trinamool Congress MP Mahua Moitra regarding a speech gave. Sudhir Chaudhary alleged her of plagiarising the speech of Truman Longman. Both Mahua Moitra and Truman Longman denied any allegation of plagiarism in the speech.
Awards
However, in spite of all the allegations and controversies, Sudhir Chaudhary won the Ramnath Goenka award of excellence in journalism in 2013. For the interview, he conducted with the friend of the Delhi gang-rape victim.
Ravish Kumar
Estimated earning per annum : 2.5 to 3 crore
Awards
One of the senior most journalists of Indian media is Ravish Kumar. The senior executive editor of NDTV India Ravish Kumar won the Ramnath Goenka Excellence in Journalism award for the best journalist of The Year twice. He’s also the first Indian journalist who receive the Ramon Magsaysay Award in 2019. He runs numerous shows in NDTV India with the primetime show hum log, Ravish ki report, and Desh Ki Baat.
Early life and education
An average Indian boy from Motihari, Bihar. He obtained his high school education from Loyola High School Patna. For his higher studies, he migrated to Delhi and completed his graduation from Deshbandhu College. Eventually, after his graduation, he enrolled in a diploma course at the Indian Institute of mass communication. Ravish Kumar is not only the senior executive editor of a leading media house but also a successful author. Some of his books are the free voice on democracy: culture and the nation, bolna hi hai: loktantra Sanskriti or Rashtra ke bare mein, Ishq Mein Shahar hona, Ravishpanti and Dekhte rahiye. Being a successful author and journalist it is obvious that he has a good earning. According to reports his annual income is somewhere between 2.5 to 3 crores.
Sweta Singh
Estimated earning per annum: 3.4 crore Shweta Singh is also one of the highest-paid news anchors in India. As a female news anchor in Aaj Tak, Sweta Singh is very popular in Indian households. Not only in news but she also has special appearances on reality shows like Big Boss. It made her more notable. Sweta Singh is the executive editor of the special programming at Aaj Tak. And she also is the news anchor of several prime-time shows on Aaj Tak Hindi news channel.
Early life
She was born in Patna. But there is not much information about her early life and education on the Internet. she is not available on any social media platform as she says that she does not like to talk much. Ironically her website says she never wanted to be a journalist instead she had more interest in writing. At her young age, she wrote articles for newspaper and poetry in her personal diary. She calls herself a reclusive person. But her career took her to where she is now. One of the significant features of her is the sports reports coverage. Though she never wanted to become a journalist, she says about her profession that this job is a platform where you learn every day if you want to. Besides anchoring, she did reporting, producing shows, camera handling, and also editing and sound mixing of her stories.
Career
She calls herself a workaholic. Some of her notable works include the series Har Har Gange and Vande Mataram. You can also see her appearances in movies like Chak De India and Chakravyuh as an Aaj Tak News anchor. Before working at Aaj Tak she also worked at Zee News and Sahara news channel.
Awards
Sweta won many awards including the SJFI award for Sourav ka sixer in 2005 for being the best Sports program. Other than that ENBA Award for Best producer 2013, ENBA best business show for Shwetpatra budget in 2014, NT Award for Best anchor 2012, NT award best Talk Show business, best talk show Entertainment, best anchor 2015, ENBA best anchor 2017, and many more.
Anjana Om Kashyap
Estimated earning per annum: 1 crore Anjana Om Kashyap is one of the few women in Indian Journalism to be among the highest paid news anchors. She is the executive editor of the Aaj Tak Hindi news channel. Anjana is also a comparatively new journalist than the ones we already talked about. She started her journey as a journalist in 2003.
Early life an eucation
Kashyap is an Army kid. Her father was a doctor on Short Service Commission in the Indian Army. She was born in Ranchi (then Bihar). And she attended Loreto Convent for schooling at a local Catholic School. Later she got admission to Delhi Public School, Ranchi. After that from the University of Delhi, she completed her Honours in botany. Just like any other Indian student, she took science in spite of having no such interest in it. But then for her Masters, she enrolled in the Delhi School of social work. Anjana Om Kashyap has always been popular in her school and college for her leadership qualities. She was the head girl in both the schools and President of a college hostel. She says during her post graduation she found out her hidden love for public activism.
Career
But her journalism career started after a few more years. She first worked as a counsellor at Daewoo Motors. But that obviously did not match her profile and characteristics. Hence, she left the job at Daewoo Motors and joined an NGO as a counsellor for slum dwellers. Her journey as a journalist started in the early 2000s. As she joined the Jamia Millia Islamia college for a diploma in journalism. After the completion, of her course, she got a job in Doordarshan as a news anchor for the show Aankhon Dekhi. After working for a year in Doordarshan she moved to Zee news. But they gave her a job in the production saying that she was lacking in speaking fluency. But later she successfully passed the auditions for being a news anchor. And became an anchor for special features in Zee News. In 2007, she left Zee news thus joining News24, where she was one of the senior anchors moderating evening debate shows. Then in 2012, she joined star news but it shut down months later. Then Anjana followed her immediate ex-boss Boss at News24 Supriya Prasad and moved to Aaj Tak around late 2012.
Controversy
One of the biggest controversies in her career was in 2019 when during a field report Kashyap broke into the neonatal ICU at Shri Krishna Medical College and Hospital during the Bihar encephalitis outbreak in 2019. She started questioning the on-duty paediatricians for which the Indian Medical Association filed a complaint against her for endangering the lives of the children. Media personal and many more significant personalities widely criticised her for her inappropriate behaviour and publicity stunt. A popular news anchor in India Anjana Om Kashyap has no less earning than any other successful journalist. According to the reports she has over 1 crore annual income approximately.
Nidhi Razdan
Estimated earning per annum: 4 crores Nidhi Razdan is currently not in journalism but a very popular face of Indian media. One of the renowned journalists who is also one of the highest paid news anchors. He was the executive editor of NDTV and also the chief anchor of NDTV 24 x 7. She was the anchor in the debate show left right and centre and the weekly debate show the big fight.
Career
She is one of the early 2000s news anchors who reached the highest level of success in her career. From ground report to documentation, she has experience in every field. Extensive reports on political, economic, and social matters of India made her study the political and Foreign Affairs of India closely. She also covered the stories like the India-US Nuclear deal, the general election Gujarat earthquake of 2001, and the Kashmir earthquake of 2005. Other than conventional journalism she also did some documentaries on Pakistan administrated Kashmir Tibet, and the United Kingdom after the London train bombings in July 2005. Not only a successful journalist but also a book author Rajasthan wrote a book titled left right and Centre : the idea of India. The penguin random house India published the book in July 2017.
Early life and education
She completed her diploma in journalism at the Indian Institute of mass communication Delhi which is one of the best journalism colleges in India. She was also the diplomatic correspondent of NDTV 24 x 7. Razdan left her job in June 2020 saying that she got an offer from Harvard University for the post of an associate professor in journalism. But on January 2021 she tweeted that she had been a victim of sophisticated phishing. She came to know about this after she contacted Harvard University about her job offer.
Barkha Dutt
Estimated earning per annum 3.5 crores Barkha Dutt is one of the popular anchors of the NDTV news channel. Recently she got very popular on her YouTube news channel Mojo. An opinion columnist at the Hindustan Times and the Washington Post Barkha Dutt is one of the highest-paid news anchors in India. Being one of the primary news anchors of NDTV she was a host of the weekly Talk Show ‘we the people‘ an award winning show. She was also the host of a prime time show the buck stops here. Journalism career started long ago in early 2000. Her notable works include her frontline war reporting on the Kargil conflict between India and Pakistan in 1999.
Early life an eucation
Barkha Dutt is a daughter of an Air India official S P Dutta. Her mother was a renowned journalist in the Hindustan Times. She followed the first footsteps of her mother. That calls herself an agonist and denies any concept of religion. She is one of the woman journalists who were in the Frontline war against triple Talaq and Muslim patriarchy. She did her graduation from Saint Stephen College Delhi in English literature. Later see enrolled in Jamia Millia Islamia for Masters in mass communication. Barkha Dutt saw success from the beginning of her career as if pressure she joined NDTV and later joined the English news wing off NDTV. She also did a master degree in journalism from Columbia university’s graduation School of journalism. She left NDTV after 21 years of service for the channel in January 2017. While she left NDTV she was at the position of Consulting editor.
YouTube career
After her resignation from NDTV actively started working for YouTube. Her on field coverage during the coronavirus outbreak brought her many appraisal. She covers the stories of migrant workers who couldn’t reach their native places due to Railway shutdown. One of her videos that became very popular was and old lady trying to get back to her village. She stayed at the railway station in the hope of the trains will start running again for a day or more without having any food or money.
Books and awards
She is also the author of of 2015 book the unquiet land. That is the co author of the chapter nothing new in the book women as victims by Varadarajan Siddharth. She won the Padma Shri award which is India’s fourth highest civilian honour.
Rajdeep sardesai
estimated estimated earning per annum: 10 crore One of the highest-paid news anchors in India has an estimated annual income of 10 crores. He is one of the senior most journalists in Indian media. Rajdeep was working with India Today television as the Consulting editor and an anchor. Sardesai was also the editor-in-chief of Global broadcasting news and was an anchor in channels like CNN IBN, IBN7, and IBN Lokmat. Redesigned in 2014. Recently the India Today channel took him off the air in January 2021 for two weeks. Allegedly he published fake news regarding the farmer’s protest in Delhi.
Early life and education
Born in Ahmedabad Gujarat on 24th may 1965 Rajdeep Sardesai belonged to a Gujarati family. His early education was from the champion School Mumbai and the cathedral and John Connon School. He did his graduation from Saint Xavier’s College Mumbai in economics. Later he went to University College Oxford for is Masters and bachelor of laws.
Career
Rajdeep Sardesai joined the Times of India in October 1988. He worked there for six consecutive years. Then he changed his direction towards television journalism. In 1994 he joined NDTV as political editor. He was the Managing editor of the channel and hosted the popular primetime show the big fight at NDTV. In April 2005 Sardesai left NDTV to start his own company GB and global broadcast news. The company was in collaboration with CNN the most popular American news Giants and TV 18. Hence Sardesai became the editor in chief of the newly launched channel CNN IBN that went on air in December 2005.
Controversies
The latest news about this TV news anchor is that in January 2021 India today suspended him for 2 weeks. Not only that they also deducted his one month salary. In protest of this incident, Rajdeep Sardesai resigned from India today. He reported that on 26 January on the national Republic Day Indian farmers were killed in Delhi during the farmers’ protest. Which is allegedly a false report.
Rajat Sharma
Estimated earning per annum 3.6 crore The most popular host of of the TV show Aap Ki Adalat Rajat Sharma was born on February 18 1957. He is currently the Chairman and editor in chief of India TV. The show Aap Ki Adalat and the name of Rajat Sharma are so so deeply attached together that it is impossible to think about Rajat Sharma and not talk about Aap Ki Adalat. It is a talk show where celebrities and significant personalities or politicians come. And they have to face the questions that the public wants to know about them.
early life and education
Rajat Sharma belongs from a very poor background. He has six brothers and one sister. He was born in Sabji Mandi Delhi. His childhood was not very perfect. The Sharma family lived in a small room in Delhi. Rajat was a deprived child of many necessities and essential needs. Did not have money to afford electricity connection at their house. In an interview, Rajat Sharma stated that there were days when he had to survive without a proper meal. In spite of such adverse situations, his parents never let his education disrupt. He did his schooling at Ramjas School Karol Bagh. Then he went to Shri Ram College of Commerce SRCC and join Akhil Bhartiya Vidyarthi Parishad.
career
After his Masters degree in commerce he joined Janardan Thakur as a researcher for a new Syndicate column. In the early stage of his career he worked for several newspapers and magazines. Onlooker magazine is one of them where he worked as a Trainee and then become its editor in 1985. Approximately after three years of working with onlooker he started working for standard observer in position of an editor. He also worked for the daily as an editor. His journey to television begin from a flight journey to Delhi. Sharma was travelling in the same flight as Zee TV’s Subhash Chandra. Former General conversation the concept of Aapki Adalat came. Sharma shot his first episode in 1993 Lalu Prasad Yadav as guest. Lalu Prasad Yadav was the Chief Minister of Bihar at the time. Till now Aap Ki Adalat featured more than 750 guest and it is celebrating 21 years of broadcasting. it is the longest running show in India’s television history.
Awards
The Government of India awarded Padma Bhushan to Rajat Sharma in 2015.
Vikram Chandra
Estimated earning per annum 2 crore Another news anchor and journalist of NDTV is on our list of highest-paid news anchors. He was also in the position of CEO of NDTV group from 2011 to 2016. His works are very notable in Indian media. Along with journalism, he is also the founder of editorji Technologies. Chandra came into LimeLight after his coverage of the Kashmir conflict. He hosted some popular primetime shows like nine o’clock news, Gadget Guru, and the big fight.
Early life and education
Vikram Chandra belonged to a journalist family. His mother Nandini Chandra work for the Hindustan Times as a journalist. His early schooling was from The Doon School where he also worked as editor of The Doon School Weekly. He did his graduation from Saint Stephen’s College Delhi in economics. Chandra is also an aluminium of Oxford University. He received an Inlaks scholarship to go to Oxford. Vikram Chandra went to Stanford University for a three month of mass media study.
Career
His first job was for a news magazine called newstrack. Is started working there in 1991 as a journalist. He started working at NDTV New Delhi television Limited in 1994. And still, now he is working for NDTV. A renowned anchor for or his cutthroat anchoring on the big fight which is India’s top ranked talk show. He also received an award for or does show. On the same show, he interviewed King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia, Bill Gates, Shimon Peres, Rupert Murdoch, Tim Cook CEO, of Apple inc. Other than a journalist he also is the author of best selling fiction thriller book the Srinagar conspiracy. He launched his startup named editorji which is a digital news platform.
Awards
Vikram Chandra received the Global leader of tomorrow award. And was selected as a Young Global leader in 2007. Other than that he also want Hero Honda Indian Television Academy Award in the best anchor category for the big fight in 2005 and 2008.
Abhisar Sharma
Estimated earning per annum 4 crore Another popular face of the journalism industry is Abhisar Sharma. One of the senior journalists of ABP News Abhisar Sharma worked for most of the big media houses like ABP News Zee Network TV today and NDTV. He is one of the highest paid news anchors of India.
Early life and education
Abhisar Sharma was born in New Delhi. His early schooling was from Kendriya Vidyalaya New Delhi. Sharma did his diploma in journalism from Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan New Delhi. He also did BSc from the same college. And then did BBC in chemical and biological radiation course from Punjab University Chandigarh.
Career
When he was doing his diploma course in journalism started to freelance in which Hindustan Times All India Radio and observer. In 1995 his first job as a Trainee reporter started with Newstrack – India’s first independent news and current affairs magazine. After working there for a year in 1996 he worked as an assistant producer with B.A.G films. Later that year he joined news as editor. His initial job was to cover wildlife issues. Later he begins covering the political reports and Parliament gigs. In 1999, Abhisar went to London and join BBC Bush house as a reporter. There he produced 5 news and current affair programmes and also the weekly science and development program. In 2010 BBC Bush house transferred him to BBC Delhi Bureau where he worked on the field to gather news. In 2003 Abhisar Sharma joined NDTV and started covering big events and issues. You also work for TV Today Network from 2007. After that, he dropped out in December 2012 as a deputy editor. He worked for Zee Network for a small time in 2013. After leaving Zee Network he joined ABP News where he still working. He is the author of three books called the Taliban trilogy. Those are the eye of the Predator, The Dark Side Of Me, and the edge of the machete.
Awards
Abhisar received the Ramnath Goenka Memorial Foundation award in 2008 in the category of excellence in the field of journalism. In 2017 June, he received the red ink Trophy for the best story on human rights 2016 in operation Lal jungle.
Gaurav Kalra
Estimated earning per annum 2 crore One of the highest paid news anchors of India who is is one of the best sports journalists. Is notable for his excellent fluency in English while news reporting. First, he worked as a sports anchor for CNN IBN. But he left his job at CNN and joined ESPN. He is the senior editor at espncricinfo.com and espn.in. He works as a video and news content creator at ESPN the world’s largest digital cricket platform. You went for his graduation in journalism to Delhi University. And then did his diploma in broadcast journalism from the University of Wales, Cardiff. He has been in the journalism industry for more than two decades. He covered several Sports reports including cricket world cups and Olympic games.
Awards
He is the winner of news television awards sports anchor of the Year 2008 best sports documentary and feature of the year 2011. And the prestigious award as sports journalist Federation of India projector of the Year 2007.
Shaili Chopra
Estimated earning per annum 1.5 crore Shaili Chopra is a comparatively young journalist in our list of highest paid news anchors. She is a renowned Indian business journalist, author and entrepreneurs. Founder of she The People TV a platform on YouTube. Where she produces videos that tell the stories of women role models in our society. Her motto to empower women and address several socio-economic issues for the betterment of society. That brought her under the spotlight. she works at NDTV Profit and et now a business journalist.
Early life and education
Chopra was born in a Punjabi family. My father is an ex-Indian Air Force officer. Her schooling was at Air Force Golden Jubilee Institute New Delhi. Her father is an EX Indian airforce official. a high school in was from airports golden jubilee institute new Delhi. Shaili Chopra did have a masters degree in broadcast and television from the Asian college of journalism Chennai.
Career
She started her career with BBC as a Trainee. After leaving BBC she worked for NDTV 24 x 7 as a journalist of Markets and Corporate Affairs. Civics for CNBC NDTV and ET NOW. As a business journalist see covered several significant International events like G20, [email protected], the Bretton woods conference 2011, the Indian economic summit and the world retail Congress.
Awards
Shaili Chopra received the Ramnath Goenka award for excellence in business journalism in 2012. She also won the best business anchor award and FICCI’s women achiever award in 2010. She won to Ooh awards for the Best English reporter across India.
