Chandra told reporters that the company would be launching new publications besides taking over the existing magazines Zee Premiere and Cable Guide. He did not divulge the nature of the proposed new publications.

Chandra said Shourie would be given sweat equity and stock options in the new company.

Shourie is the second professional manager to be made co-promoter by Chandra in his media business ventures. Zee Telefilms managing director VG Jindal was made co-promoter of the group's multi-media businesses last week.

Commenting on the appointments of Jindal and Shourie as co-promoters in the company, Chandra said this was a new endeavour in transforming human capital into financial capital. ``We have initiated a new trend in corporate governance and entreprenuership in India,'' saidChandra. He added that this was the way Indian corporates would have to move in the future to remain competitive and flourish.

Chandra said Shourie, who will join Zee in September, will also be made a member of Zee Network's proposed strategic affairs committee which the group proposes to set up.

``Shourie comes to the group with rich and varied experience spanning 30 years across different businesses,'' he said.

It is believed that Zee Network is on the lookout for more CEOs for its different business divisions. While Shourie is likely to look after the operations at Zee News as his additional charge, the day-to-day operations would be looked after by Rajiv Tiwari, who has also been recently appointed as the senior vice-president.

Shourie started his career with Metal Box from where he moved to Cadbury's. He joined media business in 1988 when he joined India Today. During his six-year tenure in India Today, he was responsible for the growth of the publication as well as the company's foray into musicbusiness.

Shourie joined Outlook magazine in 1995 as its president and publisher and later joined The Hindustan Times as its executive president. In his role as the executive president at The Hindustan Times Shourie's name has been associated with the current price-war going on between the leading dailies.

Cable-based Internet, service from Oct 1

ZEE will launch its nationwide cable-based internet service from October 1, 1999. Zee chairman Subhash Chandra said work for putting the infrastructure in place has already started and would be completed in time for the October launch to coincide with the seventh year of Zee operations.

Chandra declined to comment on the pricing and marketing gameplan, but said that his venture into Internet services would concentrate on the content and access features in the beginning and evolve on a continous basis afterwards.

Zee is currently engaged in testing its Internet service in Bangalore. Although the technical details of the service are not known, VijayJindal co-promoter of the Zee group said that initially the cable modem will cost at least Rs 20,000. ``Right now the modems are proprietary but as they move to open-architecture, the costs will definetly go down,'' he said.