NEW DELHI: Prasar Bharati Chief Executive Officer Jawhar Sircar was today elected Vice-President of the Asia Pacific Broadcasting Union (ABU) in the ongoing Convention and General Assembly at Macau.

Interestingly, India had deputed a delegation of just two members and one adviser from the public broadcaster, against countries like Japan, China, Hong Kong, South Korea which had over 40 delegates and countries like Malaysia had 30, Sri Lanka had nine, Afghanistan eight, Bhutan five, Bangladesh and Mongolia seven each, Thailand 35, Turkmenistan 15, Kazakhstan 6, and Singapore 13 delegates.

Defying all odds of practically no canvassing time, Sircar has won the election thanks to India’s emerging image heralded by conspicuous and bold initiatives of the Government and the public broadcaster.

India wanted to be part of the decision making in ABU, of which it has been a founding member since 1964 with AIR and Doordarshan. ABU has 264 members in 61 countries reaching a potential audience of 3.5 billion people, providing a forum promoting collective interests of TV and Radio broadcasters, internationally funded primarily by members. It remains the hub of harmonisation of technical broadcasting standards and systems, skill and technological development as also information exchange.

ABU is the third largest of eight global broadcasting unions, representing the largest geographic region in the world. Its Sports Department negotiates TV rights for major sporting events like Olympics, Asian Games and the World Football Cup besides several other related activities.

Prasar Bharati has immense stakes in ABU as India's national public service broadcaster.

A former CEO had been Vice-President until he lost out in 2006. Though Prasar Bharati pays Rs 50 lakh annual subscription, it had no representation in the general assembly held in Tokyo and lost the vacant seat of Vice President to Pakistan by default in 2010.