Mr.Jawhar Sircar ,the new CEO of Prasar Bharati assumed office today (22/02/2012).  He was born in Calcutta on March 22, 1952 and studied at St.Xavier’s School, Presidency College and Calcutta University. An Honours Graduate in Political Science, he is an M.A. in History and also an M.A. inSociology.

              He has received training abroad at the University of Sussex,U.K., and at New York. After joining the IAS in 1975 in West Bengal, he held several field postings, including Director of Industries before moving to the Government of India as Director in the Ministry of Commerce. Upon returning to West Bengal in 1992, Jawhar Sircar set up the new Food Processing Industries Deptt. He moved on to the Finance Department, as Special Secretary and then as Commissioner of Commercial Taxes. In 1997, he took over as Chief Electoral Officer of West Bengal, and successfully conducted the 1998 Parliamentary Elections. In 2000, Sircar was selected by Mr. Buddhadev Bhattacharjee, the then  Chief Minister of West Bengal, as the youngest-ever Principal Secretary of Commerce Industries Department ― for vigorously turning around the industrial climate and image of West Bengal, which he accomplished with success. He was then entrusted with the task of modernizing the higher and technical education in West Bengal as the Principal Secretary and several innovations were introduced.

              In May 2006, Jawhar Sircar joined the Government of India, New Delhi as Additional Secretary and Development Commissioner for Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises. He has worked in the field of Finance, Commerce and Industries for 17 of his 33 years in service and has had the occasion to see for himself the economic and industrial systems of more than 30 countries so far.
 

           He has been actively involved with many cultural and academic bodies, like the Asiatic Society, the Victoria Memorial, the Centre for Archaeological Studies and the Kolkata Museum of Modern Art. He has been associated with one of the largest and most successful Book Fairs of the world, i.e., the Kolkata Book Fair,since its inception. From the late 1990s, he also took the lead in upgrading the annual Kolkata Film Festival to a remarkable and recognized event of international standards. Sircar has been engaged in serious research in social anthropology and was the Director of a field research project that covered 78 sites of ‘popular religion’ in six districts of Western Bengal. The present focus areas of his research are ‘the construction of identities’, the ‘de-construction of religious phenomena’, folk religion, as also in popular culture and its interface with the semi-classical and classical forms.

    Sircar is a keen student of history and sociology and has published several articles and research papers on history, culture and society in leading dailies, journals and compendiums. His monograph on “The Construction of the Hindu Identity in Medieval Western Bengal: The Role of Popular Cults”, was well received in India and abroad and has received excellent reviews from foreign and Indian professors and scholars of social history and social anthropology. Sircar was awarded the first British Museum Medal as a recognition of
the contribution made to museum modernization and improving Indo-British cultural cooperation.

            FRIENDS OF PRASAR BHARATI,  heartily congratulate Mr.Jawhar Sircar in his appointment as the CEO of Prasar Bhararti , and wish all the best .We sincerely believe that Mr. Jawhar Sircar's vast experience in the field of administration and  active involvement with many cultural and academic bodies will definitely be a great help for Prasar Bharati .

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