Pressure of Truth
Exposing the spin on all sides of the news.
Outlet profile

India TV News

Indian pro-government (Hindi-language, close to the BJP)

Owned byIndependent News Service Pvt. Ltd. (INS), founded in 1997 by Rajat Sharma and his wife Ritu Dhawan. Sharma is chairman and editor-in-chief, and the Sharma family controls the company.
FundingMainly advertising revenue and the cable and satellite distribution fees typical of Indian TV channels. It also earns money from its digital properties, including indiatvnews.com and YouTube. It has no state funding and is privately held by the founding family.
On the administrationmostly neutral

Background

India TV launched on 20 May 2004, after Rajat Sharma and Ritu Dhawan set up its parent company, Independent News Service, in 1997. Sharma, a former student activist with the ABVP, had earlier been a print editor and became known for hosting the long-running interview show Aap Ki Adalat. The network has grown into one of India's most-watched Hindi news channels, with an extensive digital and YouTube presence. Reporting by The Caravan and media-ownership trackers says Sharma has long been close to the BJP. They cite his friendship with the late Arun Jaitley and Modi's frequent visits to the channel's offices in the mid-2000s. The channel's coverage is generally seen as favorable to the Modi government and Hindu-nationalist-leaning themes, with a sensational, prime-time-debate style common to Indian TV news. On U.S. politics, its recent coverage has centered on how Trump's tariffs and India's trade deal affect India. Sharma's August 2025 commentary called the Trump tariffs on India unfair, and the channel gave wide coverage to the February 2026 announcement of lower tariffs. That mix reflects its alignment with the Indian government's position more than a stance for or against Trump himself. This profile rests on limited recent sampling of its Trump coverage.

Sources

  1. India TV (Wikipedia)
  2. Rajat Sharma's path to becoming India's most powerful editor-entrepreneur (The Caravan)
  3. The Sharma Family (Media Ownership Monitor India)
  4. Rajat Sharma (Wikipedia)
  5. Trump's tariff war: Unfair, Unjust, Unreasonable (India TV)
  6. Trump says U.S. and India reached trade deal, will lower tariffs immediately (CNBC)

Profile compiled 2026-10-06; refreshed when ownership, funding, or the administration changes.

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