MUMBAI: Former TV Today Television Network news director Uday Shankar had his first day at the office today as he formally took charge as editor and director of news at Star News.
Shankar took over from incumbent news director Sanjay Pugalia who, according to Star News president Ravina Raj Kohli, would be concentrating for the present on managing the election coverage of the channel.

As the content head of Star News, Shankar would be based in Mumbai, though there are talks of refurbishing the Delhi bureau too, by inducting some more senior people.

Kohli says Shankar's broad brief is to carry forward the channel tag line "pace, punch, credibility and impact", with the ultimate aim of pivoting Star News into the Number 1 position in the news sweepstakes.

Just getting Shankar may not ensure that Aaj Tak can be toppled from the top slot as the success story of the channel, which has garnered over 50 per cent of the market share, would be a difficult ballgame to replicate even by Shankar. A journalist by profession, Shankar has worked in several media houses, including the Zee News.