MUMBAI: Sharing his views on the theme ‘India: Delivering the Dream’, Zee Entertainment Enterprises Ltd (Zeel) managing director and CEO Punit Goenka delivered a keynote at the 19th Wharton India Economic Forum (WIFE) on 21 February.

Held at The Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania, Goenka spoke about the changed business environment in India with initiatives by the new government and the current state of the media and entertainment industry in India.

He also discussed Zeel’s journey over the past 20 years and the opportunities and challenges he foresees over the next few years.

Speaking on the media and entertainment industry in India, Goenka said that widespread technological advances in the ecosystem and the digital experience driven mainly by aspects like digitization of cable industry, has brought a new mindset to make business - quicker, targeted, transparent and collaborative.

He believed that this industry is the “sunrise sector” for the nation’s economy. Proving its resilience to the world, the Indian M&E sector is on the cusp of a strong phase of growth.

“With most industry firsts to our credit, we as a global entertainment conglomerate have always been at the crest of innovation and leadership. We take immense pride in the fact that, unlike other global media companies which have travelled to India to set up their operations, Zee has travelled against the flow and has successfully set up its presence across 169 countries, entertaining over 730 million viewers across the globe,” Goenka said.

The other keynote speakers were Reliance Industries’ Hital Meswani, Abbott India’s Rehan A. Khan, Microsoft’s Sanket Akerker and Bank of India’s V.R. Iyer.