For more than nine decades, The Indian Express has been one of the most feared names in Indian journalism. Prime ministers have dreaded its front page. Governments have tried to silence it. And through every storm — the Emergency, the Bofors scandal, the Coalgate expose — it has kept publishing. Today it remains one of the most respected English-language newspapers in India, known for its bold investigative reporting and fiercely independent editorial voice. But who actually owns it?
The answer is clear: The Indian Express is owned and controlled by the Goenka family — specifically Viveck Goenka and his son Anant Goenka — who together hold an overwhelming 90.96% stake in the company that publishes it. Behind that number lies a remarkable story that stretches from a small Chennai printing press in 1932 to one of the most powerful media groups in modern India.
What Is The Indian Express?
The Indian Express is an English-language Indian daily newspaper founded in 1932 by P. Varadarajulu Naidu. It is headquartered in Noida and owned by Indian Express Limited, formerly known as the Indian Express Group.
The Express Group of Publications, that publishes Indian Express, also publishes The Financial Express — a business daily — Loksatta, a Marathi daily, and Jansatta, a Hindi daily. From a single Madras edition paper, The Indian Express has grown to eight editions and is published from ten different cities today.
According to the Indian Readership Survey (IRS) 2017, The Indian Express is the sixth most read English newspaper in India with a readership of nearly 1.6 million readers. Online, the group has grown significantly, becoming the third largest news group in India by digital reach.
Who Owns Indian Express Right Now in 2026?
The Indian Express newspaper is 100% controlled by The Indian Express (P) Ltd company. Viveck Goenka, the Managing Director and Chairman, along with his son Anant Goenka, Executive Director at The Indian Express, jointly hold 40% shares in The Indian Express (P) Limited, while Shekhar Gupta and Neelam Jolly hold 9% shares in the company. Indian Express Holdings and Private Enterprises Limited holds 50.99% of the company.
Through Indian Express Holdings and Private Enterprises Limited, Viveck Goenka and his son Anant Goenka hold 50.96% share of The Indian Express (P) Ltd company. Hence Viveck Goenka and his son Anant Goenka in total hold 90.96% share of The Indian Express (P) Ltd company.
In plain terms: the Goenka family controls nearly 91% of the company. This is not a publicly traded newspaper. It is a private, family-owned media empire — and the family has held it with an iron grip for nearly 90 years.
Ownership and Key Stakeholders Table
| Shareholder / Party | Role | Ownership Stake | Key Detail |
|---|---|---|---|
| Viveck Goenka | Chairman, Managing Director & Editorial Director | Part of combined 90.96% family stake | Adopted grandson of founder Ramnath Goenka; controls entire group |
| Anant Goenka | Executive Director & Head of New Media | Part of combined 90.96% family stake | Son of Viveck Goenka; leads digital transformation of the group |
| Indian Express Holdings & Private Enterprises Ltd | Holding Company | 50.99% of Indian Express (P) Ltd | 99.96% owned by Viveck and Anant Goenka; key ownership vehicle |
| Shekhar Gupta & Neelam Jolly | Former Editor-in-Chief & Spouse | 9% of Indian Express (P) Ltd | Journalist stakeholder; Gupta was legendary editor of the paper |
| Other Minor Shareholders | Various individuals | 0.01% of Indian Express (P) Ltd | Includes George Varghese and other senior company officials |
| George Varghese | CEO & Managing Director | No major ownership stake | Leads day-to-day operations of The Indian Express Private Limited |
| Goenka Family (combined) | Founding & Controlling Family | ~90.96% effective control | Private company; no public listing; full family control maintained |
The Origin Story: From a Chennai Press to a National Institution
The story of The Indian Express does not begin with the Goenka family. It begins with a doctor who believed that India needed an independent voice.
In 1932, The Indian Express was started by an Ayurvedic doctor, P. Varadarajulu Naidu, at Chennai, being published by his Tamil Nadu press. Soon under financial difficulties, he sold the newspaper to Swaminathan Sadanand, the founder of The Free Press Journal, a national news agency.
Sadanand had big ambitions for the paper. He expanded it, brought in innovations, and tried to build it into a national publication. But financial trouble followed him too. Faced with financial difficulties, he sold a part of his stake to Goenka as convertible debentures. In 1935, when The Free Press Journal finally collapsed, and after a protracted court battle with Goenka, Sadanand lost ownership of Indian Express.
Enter Ramnath Goenka — the man who would define the paper for generations.
Ramnath Goenka: The Man Who Made Indian Express Fearless
Ramnath Goenka was born in 1904 to a Rajasthani bania family in Bihar. He started his independent journey as a partner in a financial broking company in 1926. In the same year, at just 22, he was elected to the Madras Legislative Council as a trade and commerce representative.
As someone who was associated with the Indian National Congress in the pre-independence era, Goenka faced the wrath of Congress Prime Minister Indira Gandhi in 1975 for supporting Gandhi’s political opponent Jaya Prakash Narayan during the Emergency period. Later, Indira Gandhi’s son Rajiv Gandhi also had Goenka in his crosshairs as the newspaper exposed corruption scams against Rajiv Gandhi.
Goenka is largely credited with unseating both Rajiv Gandhi and Indira Gandhi as Prime Ministers as a result of his investigative journalism. That is a remarkable claim — and one that most serious observers of Indian political history would not dispute.
Ramnath Goenka died in 1991, but not before formally adopting his maternal grandson Viveck and ensuring the paper would stay in family hands. In 1999, eight years after Goenka’s death in 1991, the group was split between the family members. The southern editions took the name The New Indian Express, while the northern editions, based in Mumbai, retained the original Indian Express name.
The Split of 1999: Two Papers From One Empire
This is one of the most important moments in Indian Express history — and one that most readers today are not fully aware of.
When Ramnath Goenka died in 1991, the massive Indian Express empire he had built over 60 years had to be divided among family members. After years of legal disputes and negotiations, the family reached a settlement.
After Ramnath Goenka’s death in 1991, The Indian Express Group split into two companies. The northern editions kept the original name, while the southern editions became The New Indian Express.
The New Indian Express Group is owned by Manoj Kumar Sonthalia, the grandson of the publication’s founder, Shri Ramnath Goenka.
So today, the two papers share the same founding legacy — Ramnath Goenka — but are completely separate companies owned by different branches of the family. Viveck Goenka controls the northern Indian Express, while Manoj Kumar Sonthalia controls the southern New Indian Express. They are rivals in the market and have no shared ownership.
Who Is Viveck Goenka? The Current Owner
Viveck Goenka is the Chairman, Managing Director, and Editorial Director of the Indian Express Group. The newspapers included in the Indian Express Group include the flagship newspaper The Indian Express, business and economy daily Financial Express, Marathi daily Loksatta, and Jansatta in Hindi.
Viveck Goenka was born in Chennai — then Madras — to Krishna Khaitan and Ajay Mohan Khaitan. Ramnath Goenka, his maternal grandfather, was the founder of the Indian Express Group. In 1991, Ramnath Goenka formally adopted him.
An engineer by training, Viveck has spent his entire career building the Indian Express brand into the digital age. He sits on the boards of numerous other companies and remains one of the most influential figures in Indian media.
Who Is Anant Goenka? The Next Generation
Anant Goenka, the son of Viveck Goenka, currently works as the Executive Director of The Indian Express as well as the Head of New Media and handles the division of business publications.
Anant represents the fourth generation of Goenka family leadership at Indian Express. He has been the driving force behind the paper’s digital expansion — transforming indianexpress.com from a simple online version of the print paper into one of India’s most visited news websites. Under his leadership, the Indian Express Group became the third largest news group in India by digital reach — a remarkable achievement for a traditional newspaper group.
What Other Publications Does the Indian Express Group Own?
The Indian Express brand is bigger than just one newspaper. The Express Group is a multi-publication media house with a significant footprint across languages and platforms.
Indian Express Limited (IEL) publishes several widely circulated dailies, including The Indian Express and The Financial Express in English, Loksatta in Marathi, and Jansatta in Hindi. The company’s newspapers are published from over a dozen cities daily, including New Delhi, Mumbai, Ahmedabad, Bengaluru, Kolkata, Pune, Chandigarh, Hyderabad, Kochi, Lucknow, Jaipur, Nagpur, Vadodara, and Chennai. Its weekly entertainment magazine Screen, covering the Indian film industry, also has a popular following.
The group also publishes Express Computer and Express Healthcare through its subsidiary companies, and operates the indianexpress.com website — launched in 1996 — and the epaper.indianexpress.com platform.
The Legacy of Fearless Journalism
What makes the ownership story of The Indian Express so compelling is not just the corporate structure — it is the editorial culture that the Goenka family has consistently protected across three generations.
The Indian Express has won various prestigious awards such as the Vienna-based International Press Institution Award for Outstanding Journalism in Public Interest, Kurt Shorck Award for International Journalism, Natali Prize for Journalism, and the International Federation of Journalists – Journalism of Tolerance Prize.
From exposing the Bofors scandal under Ramnath Goenka to breaking the Panama Papers story in India under Viveck and Anant Goenka, the paper has consistently produced journalism that holds power accountable. For a family-owned, private newspaper with no public shareholders to answer to, that editorial independence is both unusual and remarkable.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
Q1. Who owns The Indian Express in 2026? The Indian Express is owned by the Goenka family — Viveck Goenka and his son Anant Goenka — who together hold 90.96% of The Indian Express (P) Ltd.
Q2. Who founded The Indian Express? The Indian Express was founded in 1932 by P. Varadarajulu Naidu in Chennai, later taken over by Ramnath Goenka in 1935.
Q3. Is Indian Express a publicly traded company? No. The Indian Express is a private, unlisted company — it is not listed on any Indian stock exchange.
Q4. Who is the current Chairman of The Indian Express? Viveck Goenka serves as Chairman, Managing Director, and Editorial Director of the Indian Express Group as of 2026.
Q5. What is the difference between Indian Express and New Indian Express? After the 1999 family split, the northern editions became The Indian Express (owned by Viveck Goenka) and the southern editions became The New Indian Express (owned by Manoj Kumar Sonthalia).
Q6. What other newspapers does the Indian Express Group publish? The group publishes The Financial Express (English), Loksatta (Marathi), Jansatta (Hindi), Express Computer, and Express Healthcare, along with indianexpress.com.
Q7. Who is Anant Goenka and what is his role? Anant Goenka is the son of Viveck Goenka and serves as Executive Director and Head of New Media at The Indian Express, leading its digital expansion.
Q8. How much stake does Shekhar Gupta hold in Indian Express? Shekhar Gupta and his wife Neelam Jolly together hold 9% shares in The Indian Express (P) Ltd.
The Indian Express is owned and controlled by the Goenka family — specifically Viveck Goenka (Chairman and Managing Director) and his son Anant Goenka (Executive Director) — who together hold an effective 90.96% stake in The Indian Express (P) Ltd, the private company that publishes the newspaper.
The paper was founded in 1932 in Chennai, passed through two owners before Ramnath Goenka took full control in 1935, and has remained in Goenka family hands ever since. After the family split of 1999, the northern editions stayed with Viveck Goenka’s branch as The Indian Express, while the southern editions became The New Indian Express under Manoj Kumar Sonthalia.
It is a private company — not listed on any stock exchange — which means the Goenka family answers to no public shareholders and no quarterly earnings pressure. That private ownership structure is, arguably, one of the biggest reasons why The Indian Express has maintained the editorial independence that has defined it for over 90 years.