Bharatkumar Raut

Bharatkumar Raut (born 6 April 1953) is a former member of Parliament representing Maharashtra in the Rajya Sabha, the upper house of the Indian Parliament. He practiced journalism for over four decades. He worked in English and Marathi newspapers, Government and private television channels in India and abroad.
He was the Editor of Maharashtra Times, consultant Times of India Group and the Editorial Director of Lokmat Media Group.

Born in a middle class Maharashtrian family Bharatkumar Raut had his schooling in Mumbai. While doing his post-graduation in Political Studies, Mr. Raut joined Print journalism but soon shifed to Television, when Doordarshan, the government-owned TV channel, was launched in Mumbai. He worked for Marathi and later English news bulletins.

Bharatkumar Raut completed his M.A. (Politics) from University of Bombay,Mumbai. and done his PhD from Tilak Maharashtra Vidyapeeth, Pune.

He worked for Marathi and later English news bulletins. During his five-year stint in Doordarshan, he anchored many news-based programmes, chat shows, youth programmes, etc. He also had the opportunity to interview international personalities viz. Sheikh Mujibur Rahman of Bangladesh, Robert McNamara of World Bank etc.

He later shifted to The Times of India Group, where he worked for Maharashtra Times, a Marathi language daily and Evening New of India as a reporter. However, in his second comeback to the group, he became the Executive Editor of The Independent and The Metropolis on Saturday and also of E-Times. During his tenure as Editor of Maharashtra Times, the paper became the highest selling Marathi daily in Mumbai metropolitan area as per survey.

Mr. Raut was also Resident Editor of The Pioneer .

He joined Zee TV Network in 1996 and was instrumental in the launch of Zee News. As a Creative Director of Zee Network, Mr. Raut traveled extensively in Europe and United States, to launch Zee on the foreign land.

He was the President of Mumbai Marathi Patrakar Sangh, an association of Marathi speaking journalists in Mumbai in 1987–88, when the foundation stone of the multi-storeyed Patrakar Bhavan was laid.

• Bharatkumar Raut was awarded the prestigious "Balshastri Jambhekar" Award and "J G Jadhav" Awards for excellence in Marathi Journalism.
• The first "Ram Manohar Tripathi Award" and the "Giants International" award for journalist of the year.
• "Harivansh Rai Bachchan" Award instituted by Aashirvaad and "Best Business Journalist" Award instituted by the Association of Business Communicators.
• The "lifetime achievement" award was given to him at the hands of noted social worker Sindhutai Sapkal.

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• "The lifetime achievement award will be given to MP Bharatkumar Raut at the hands of noted social worker Sindhutai Sapkal at the new building of Maharashtra Rajya Marathi Patrakar Sangh in Pune on August 7, said secretary Sharad Lonkar. – Times of India". The Times of India. Retrieved 2016-06-02.