Subhash Chandra

Subhash Chandra Goenka (born 30 November 1950) is an Indian media entrepreneur. He is the chairman of the Essel Group, an Indian media conglomerate that owns Zee Media and the chairman emeritus of Zee Entertainment. He founded Zee TV in 1992 and Zee News in 1999. He was elected to the Upper House of the Indian parliament for the Haryana state in the 2016 Rajya Sabha election, as an independent candidate supported by legislators from the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). On 31 May 2022, Chandra filed his nomination from Rajasthan for elections to the Rajya Sabha as an Independent candidate backed by the BJP, but he lost the election. In 2026, Chandra underwent personal insolvency proceedings under the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code, culminating in the NCLT’s approval of a creditor-approved repayment plan related to his personal guarantees for Essel Group borrowings. On 25 August 2026, he got away with a 99.97 % haircut on his outstanding debts whereby he would pay back a sum of Rs 6.5 crore to settle admitted creditor claims of about Rs 22,006.57 crore when Nilesh Sharma, a member of the Indian insolvency board NCLT rejected objections by lenders that the recovery was too meagre to merit approval.