Assam’s ad spend tripled after Himanta became CM. Media group linked to his wife got Rs 20 cr

In five financial years since Himanta Biswa Sarma became chief minister of Assam, his government spent Rs 460.82 crore on media and advertising. In the five years before he took office on May 10, 2021, the state spent Rs 145.01 crore – less than a third as much. 

Among the recipients of that expanded budget is Pride East Entertainment Private Limited, the state’s largest media group, whose managing director and chairman is Riniki Bhuyan Sarma, the wife of Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma, who took office on May 10, 2021. Though the money given to Pride East is a tiny fraction considering the sharp surge in the overall ad spending.

The company received about Rs 20.11 crore in government advertising between just 2021-22 and August 2024, compared to roughly Rs 10.4 crore across 11 financial years from 2010-11 to 2020-21. 

Unlike the figures for overall ad spending, which were placed before the state assembly last month in reply to a question by MLA Wazed Ali Choudhury, the numbers specific to Pride East are drawn from a separate assembly reply. That was tabled on August 22, 2024 in response to MLA Asif Mohammad Nazar’s question about ad money granted to the company. The two disclosures cover different windows: the Choudhury reply runs to the end of 2025-26, while the figures for Pride East stop in August 2024. 

Pride East began in 2008 as a satellite news operation and is now the largest media group in the state. It runs at least two news channels and three entertainment channels, a news portal, several magazines and the newspaper Niyamiya Barta, and in May 2023 it acquired the regional news portal Time 8. Newslaundry has previously reported that its Assamese-language channel, News Live, is the most-watched satellite channel in Assam, according to BARC data.

What the numbers show

For most of the period covered, the sums were modest. Pride East received Rs 5.95 lakh in 2010-11 and Rs 7.77 lakh the following year, and Rs 2.92 lakh in 2012-13. The amounts began climbing in 2013-14, when the company received Rs 30.27 lakh, followed by Rs 73.36 lakh in 2014-15, Rs 77.85 lakh in 2015-16 and Rs 85.17 lakh in 2016-17.

Payments crossed a crore in 2017-18, at Rs 1.37 crore, and continued to rise: Rs 1.44 crore in 2018-19, Rs 2.08 crore in 2019-20 and Rs 2.68 crore in 2020-21. This upward trend therefore predates Sarma’s tenure as chief minister, a period during which he served in successive state cabinets, first under the Congress and, from 2016, in the BJP government led by Sarbananda Sonowal.

The scale changed after May 2021. The figure recorded for 2021-22 is Rs 5.52 crore, more than twice the previous year’s total – though that financial year began in April 2021, a month before Sarma was sworn in. Payments fell to Rs 3.75 crore in 2022-23 before rising to Rs 10.05 crore in 2023-24, the highest single-year figure in the disclosure and roughly equal to everything the company had received in the 11 years to 2020-21. 

The financial year 2023-24 is also the one in which Pride East’s share of the state’s television advertising was largest. Government expenditure data for 2023-24 shows total spending on television publicity of about Rs 32 crore, which would place the payments to Pride East at close to a third of the state’s television advertising outlay for the year.

The statement also lists Rs 78.9 lakh for 2024-25, but that figure runs only to August 2024 and cannot be read as a full-year total.

Nazar’s question also asked whether Pride East had raised its advertising rates in 2021. The then information and public relations minister, Piyush Hazarika, replied that it had not. The information and public relations portfolio was under Hazarika in the previous government led by Sarma. This year, the portfolio is directly under Sarma, along with home, power, and several other departments. 

Newslaundry sent questions to Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma and to Riniki Bhuyan Sarma. This report will be updated if a response is received.

A much larger advertising budget

Pride East’s rising receipts sit inside a bigger expansion of state publicity spending, as suggested by a response to MLA Wazed Ali Choudhury on July 10, 2026.

In the five financial years before Sarma became chief minister, from 2016-17 to 2020-21, the Assam government spent Rs 145.01 crore on media and advertising. In the five years from 2021-22 to 2025-26, it spent Rs 460.82 crore – more than three times as much. These figures come from a separate reply tabled in the assembly on July 13, 2026.

Year by year, the government spent Rs 27.06 crore in 2016-17, Rs 17.29 crore in 2017-18, Rs 23.61 crore in 2018-19, Rs 30.7 crore in 2019-20 and Rs 46.35 crore in 2020-21. Spending then rose to Rs 72.83 crore in 2021-22 and Rs 78.69 crore in 2022-23, before peaking at Rs 160.9 crore in 2023-24. It fell to Rs 69.17 crore in 2024-25 and stood at Rs 79.23 crore in 2025-26.

Print took the bulk of the money in both periods, but the gap widened. 

Print advertising accounted for Rs 120.98 crore of the earlier five-year total, against Rs 4.63 crore on electronic media and Rs 19.41 crore on hoardings and banners. In the later period, print rose to Rs 335.55 crore, electronic media to Rs 69.70 crore and hoardings and banners to Rs 50.04 crore. The later years also record spending on platforms absent from the earlier data – Rs 2.64 crore on social media and Rs 2.89 crore on digital media.

The single largest year, 2023-24, was driven by print too: Rs 120.56 crore of that year’s Rs 160.90 crore went to newspapers.

Who received the money

The July 2026 reply to MLA Choudhury breaks down payments to the 10 highest-circulation dailies in Assam between 2016-17 and 2025-26.

The English-language Assam Tribune received the most, Rs 43.1 crore, followed by The Sentinel at Rs 30.20 crore. Among Assamese dailies, Asomiya Pratidin led with Rs 21.08 crore, ahead of Amar Asom (Rs 19.59 crore), Dainik Janambhumi (Rs 19.42 crore), Dainik Agradoot (Rs 17.15 crore) and Asomiya Khabar (Rs 14.18 crore). The three Hindi dailies in the list received considerably less: Dainik Purvoday Rs 7.24 crore, Purvanchal Prahari Rs 5.11 crore and Pratah Khabar Rs 2.34 crore.

Details of television advertising were sought in the same question, but the government did not provide them.

Payments to TV networks as well as outlets based outside Assam appear in the August 2024 reply, which also covers 22 national newspapers between May 2021 and July 31, 2024. 

The Times of India received the most at Rs 21.27 crore, followed by Hindustan Times(Rs 12.14 crore) and Dainik Jagran (Rs 10.72 crore). The Indian Express received Rs 7.01 crore and The Hindu Rs 6.92 crore. Others include Amar Ujala (Rs 3.62 crore), Dainik Bhaskar (Rs 2 crore), Anandabazar Patrika (Rs 1.66 crore), The Telegraph(Rs 1.61 crore), The New Indian Express (Rs 1.19 crore), Sandesh (Rs 42.8 lakh), Punjab Kesari (Rs 59.49 lakh), Deccan Herald (Rs 36.59 lakh), Hindustan (Rs 35.7 lakh), Bartaman (Rs 28.83 lakh), Prameya (Rs 16.8 lakh), Navbharat Times(Rs 12.81 lakh) and Hind Samachar (Rs 57,898).

The same reply lists television and radio payments for that period. Pratidin Time received Rs 4.16 crore, DY365 Rs 4.03 crore, Prag News Rs 3.84 crore, ND24 Rs 3.64 crore, and NK TV Rs 3.55 crore. News18 received Rs 3.16 crore, NE News Rs 1.92 crore, Assam Talks Rs 1.38 crore, Pratham Khabar Rs 1.33 crore and Rang Rs 1.31 crore. Pride East channels News Live and Northeast Live got Rs 3.45 crore and Rs 1.8 crore, respectively.

Among national networks, Aaj Tak received Rs 1.45 crore and Times Now Rs 1.04 crore, followed by Zee TV (Rs 55.22 lakh), India TV (Rs 52.11 lakh), ABP News (Rs 40.61 lakh), Republic TV (Rs 35.78 lakh), India Today (Rs 33.35 lakh) and TV9 Bharatvarsh (Rs 26.34 lakh). All India Radio received Rs 49.94 lakh and Radio Mirchi Rs 46.36 lakh, with smaller sums to Red FM, Big FM, Radio City and Fever FM.

While Pride East received nearly Rs 20 crore between 2021-22 and August 2024, the outlet-wise breakdown for this total amount is unavailable. The assembly reply to Asif Mohammad Nazar had put payments to Niyamiya Barta at Rs 12.8 crore and Pride East channels at nearly Rs 5.25 crore from May 2021 to July 2024.

Hoardings on the list

Outdoor advertising accounted for Rs 22.15 crore across three financial years, according to a further assembly reply: Rs 10.50 crore in 2021-22, Rs 4.43 crore in 2022-23 and Rs 7.22 crore in 2023-24.

In 2021-22, the largest payment went to ART Entertainment & Service Pvt Ltd at Rs 5.41 crore, followed by Outreach Advertising Pvt Ltd (Rs 1.90 crore) and Fast Track Integrated Marketing Service (Rs 1.50 crore), with smaller sums to Priya Communication (Rs 99.98 lakh), Acme Event & Empo (Rs 32.63 lakh), Marcom Media (Rs 21.58 lakh) and Urvashi Reflection & Co (Rs 14.53 lakh).

The following year, the entire Rs 4.43 crore went to two firms: Outreach Advertising, at Rs 3.22 crore, and Axis My India, at Rs 1.21 crore. In 2023-24, Outreach Advertising again led with Rs 4.01 crore, followed by Axis My India at Rs 2.41 crore and Urvashi Reflection & Co at Rs 59.94 lakh, with smaller payments to Exclusive Advertising Pvt Ltd (Rs 9.79 lakh), ART Entertainment (Rs 8.70 lakh), Resonance Brand Communication (Rs 1.30 lakh) and Tulika Art (Rs 48,000).

Axis My India, which received Rs 3.62 crore across the two years, is better known as a polling agency; its founder and chairman, Pradeep Gupta, is among India’s most widely quoted pollsters. The assembly reply does not describe the nature of the work for which the firm was paid.

Your support keeps news free. Get a 6-month subscription at Rs 1947. Or gift it to your friends or relatives.