S M Khan

SM Khan
Director General (Press Registrar and Head of Department), Registrar of Newspapers for India
Personal details
Born	(1957-06-15) 15 June 1957 Khurja,Uttar Pradesh, India
Spouse(s)	Shehnaz Khan
Children	3 sons
Alma mater	Aligarh Muslim University, University of Wales

S.M. Khan, is a senior Indian Information Service officer of Government of India currently serving as Director General (Press Registrar and Head of Department), Registrar of Newspapers for India. Prior to his current assignment he served as the Director General of Doordarshan News for over 3 years.

Khan, a 1982-batch IIS officer, had a long innings with CBI as its spokesperson and Press Secretary to then President of India A P J Abdul Kalam.^[1][2]

Early life and education

Khan hails from town Khurja in Uttar Pradesh. He belongs to a family of lawyers. He studied law for his graduation and pursued LLM from Aligarh University. He was awarded the Chancellors Gold Medal for topping the entire University. He later went to University of Wales for a degree in Economics.

Important Postings

During his nearly 13 years service in Central Bureau of Investigation, India's Premier Investigation Agency, Khan was the face of the agency appearing regularly on national and international media, which at that time had been handling several high-profile cases, including Harshad Mehta finance scam, Rajiv Gandhi assassination, Bofors besides others.

Khan had also served government of India's Directorate of Film Festival(DFF) as Director for two years and was heading the coveted India International Film Festival. As Director, DFF he was also responsible for the National Film Awards and Dada Saheb Phalke Awards. He also represented India at the Cannes and Berlin Film Festival.

Khan has also served at the Press Information Bureau as a Director General and he currently is serving as the Press Registrar of India. He along with the then Minister of Information&Broadcasting Shri Prakash Javadekar released " Press In India ".

^[3]

Mr. SM Khan with his supporters after winning the IICC Elections 2014

Mr. SM Khan on 12 January 2014 was elected as the Trustee, India Islamic Cultural Center established to promote mutual understanding and amity amongst the people of the country.^[4]

Mr. Khan started the webcasting of news bulletins of Doordarshan News from the regional news centers.^[5]

Author

SM Khan has written his debut book on the "People's President Dr. APJ Abdul Kalam". The book shares his experiences with Dr. Kalam during and post presidency. It provides insight into various facets of Dr. Kalam's life including important highlights of his travel in India and abroad. The book has been published by Bloomsbury Publishing and will be released by end October 2016.

Controversies

During the run-up to the 2014 Lok Shabha elections, a section of media reported that DD News delayed the transmission of Shri Narendra Modi's interview and edited out certain portions. Answering a query about editing out certain portions, Mr. Khan as DG clarified that there was no delay and the interview was telecast on Prime Time within 24 hours and repeated also the next day. There was no editing of the interview but certain questions were dropped to telecast interview in a fixed time slot allotted for the program. ^[6]

References

^[1]

^[2]

1. ↑ http://www.indiantelevision.com/regulators/people/neelam-kapur-moved-from-top-post-in-pib-dd-news-adg-sm-khan-put-on-compulsory-wait-140809
2. ↑ http://www.thehindu.com/todays-paper/tp-national/plan-to-curb-frivolous-newspaper-registrations/article6569209.ece