Jawhar Sircar

Biography

Jawhar Sircar (22 March 1952) is a retired Indian civil servant , who has 42 years experience in Administration, who is equally well known as a Researcher, Publisher of articles, Author and a Public Speaker. He last served as CEO, Prasar Bharati from February, 2012 to October 2016. He resigned from the top statutory post of India and despite diffenences, the NDA Government gave him honours and acknowledged his services. He relocated to Kolkata in November, 2016 to take up his long pending Research and Publication work. He is associated with many Cultural & Academic Institutions, where he holds regular Talks or Preside over Events & Meetings. He has been unanimously elected as Chairman of the prestigious Centre for Studies in Social Science, Calcutta (CSSSC). CSSSC is a Premier Research institute that has hosted numerous Foreign and Indian Scholars of the highest order and undertaken path-breaking research & publication in important disciplines of Social Science. He served as Secretary of the Ministry of Culture, Government of India from late 2008 to February 2012, where he reported directly to the Prime Minister for most of his tenure. He resigned to take over his current position, for which he was chosen by an eminent panel led by the Vice President of India and Supreme Court Judge. As Culture Secretary, he initiated long-pending reforms and took up the modernization of museums, archives, and libraries for which he was awarded the British Museum Medal. As CEO, he supervised India’s public service broadcaster, which is among the largest such networks in the world and cover well over a billion people, through 570 stations of All India Radio (AIR) & Doordarshan (TV). As a large orthodox organization of government servants, it is difficult to modernize, but Sircar has been able to break new grounds and introduce digital technologies and cut down obsolescence. He has received three Awards for this in three years. He has been elected as Vice President of the world's largest Public TV and Radio organization, the Asia Pacific Broadcasting Union, on which 67 nations are represented. Jawhar Sircar has been a Member of the Governing Councils of Indian Council of World Affairs (ICWA),Consortium for Educational Communication,Film & Television Institute of India, and also Trustee/GB Member of IIM, Kolkata,Victoria Memorial Museum, Indian Museum, National Museum, National Library, National School of Drama, IGNCA, the Three National Akademies,etc.Recently he has been nominated in the National Advisory Council of Spic Macay. & also nominated on the National Executive Council of CII. Jawhar Sircar is Vice President of the All India Tennis Association,the President of India's pioneering Children's Little Theatre. Sircar is also a Trustee Member of PSBT (Public Service Broadcasting Trust) Jawhar Sircar studied at St.Xavier’s School, Presidency College and Calcutta University in Kolkata and at the Universities of Cambridge and Sussex. He has two Master’s Degrees, in ‘Sociology’ and ‘History’. He has carried on research and publications on cultural, historical and anthropological subjects for several years. Sircar is a Life Member of the Asiatic Society, India International Centre, Indian Anthropological Society and several other bodies.

Research Interest

cultural, historical and anthropological subjects