Goswami resigns from Times Now, ET Now.

In an unexpected development, Editor-in-Chief of news channels Times Now and Economic Times Arnab Goswami has announced his resignation.

The Quint reported that Goswami, known as a firebrand in Indian journalism, announced his resignation at a meeting of Times Now employees held in Mumbai with staff from Delhi and other important bureaus joining via video conferencing. Though there is no official confirmation either from Goswami or Times, various media reports said that he is going to start his own media firm.

“Independent media is going to thrive,” Goswami was quoted as saying at the meeting by Quint. Hinting at his future plans, he repeated the phrase “The game has just begun,” several times during the one-hour-long meeting.

According to a report in Business Standard, Goswami has plans to start a news channel with politician and entrepreneur Rajeev Chandrasekhar and American media baron Rupert Murdoch. Earlier, it was rumored that he would join UK-based Fox News.

Goswami has been anchoring the popular talk show ‘The News Hour’ that has helped the channel grab the lion’s share of prime time audience. According to Exchange for Media, Times Now has a viewership of more than 70 percent of the prime-time audience in India.

Goswami’s emotionally charged, heated debates on The News Hour were the main factor behind the success of Times Now that started operations in 2005. He was the Editor-in-Chief and President, News, Times Now and ET Now, when he announced his plans to part ways with the media group.

“Goswami has led Times Now to leadership in less than a year of the launch of the channel in 2006. Since 2007, he has maintained and increased the dominance of Times Now,” said an earlier report of Exchange for Media.

Apart from the talk show, his interview-based show ‘Frankly Speaking with Arnab’ also has a huge audience base across India.

Born in 1973 in Guwahati, Assam, Goswami has a master’s in Social Anthropology from St. Antony’s College, at Oxford University. He started his career in The Telegraph published from Kolkata. In 1995, he joined NDTV where he anchored daily news shows. Later, he joined Times Now and was promoted as the Editor-in-Chief.

Though Goswami is one of the most followed journalists in India, he is often criticized for being rude and arrogant to guests and panel members on his talk show. He is the first person to have interviewed Narendra Modi after he became the prime minister.

Recently, the central government gave him Y category security after intelligence agencies perceived a threat to his life from Pakistani terrorist groups.