Saranapavan Family
The Saravanapavan family owns and oversees the New Uthayan Publication (Pvt) Limited, a publishing house which prints the Tamil language newspapers Uthayan and Sudar Oli. However, in 2018, Sudar Oli ceased publication. Eswarapatham Saravanapavan, also referred to as E. Saravanapavan, is the founding Chairperson of New Uthayan Publication (Pvt) Limited. He is also a Member of Parliament from Illankai Tamil Arasu Kadchi (ITAK). At present, he owns 92.31 percent of shares in the company. Within the Sri Lankan parliament, Sarvanapavan is involved in the Committee on Ethics and Privileges, Sectoral Oversight Committee on Economic Development, Sectoral Oversight Committee on Health and Human Welfare, Social Empowerment and the Select Committee of Parliament on the United Nations 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.
E. Saravanapavan’s wife, Yasothai Saravanapavan (nee Nadesapillai), owns 7.69 percent of New Uthayan Publication (Pvt) Limited. Currently, she serves as the Managing Director of the company. Meanwhile, their daughter Lukshmee Saravanapavan was appointed to the post of Director at the company on 20 December 2016 and, on the same day, promoted to the position of Joint Managing Director. The Saravanapavan family serve as the sole directors of the company.
Family & Friends
Affiliated Interests Family Members Friends
Eswarapatham Saravanapavan – the founding Chairperson of New Uthayan Publication (Pvt) Limited and a Member of Parliament from Illankai Tamil Arasu Kadchi (ITAK). He owns 92.31 percent of shares in the company and also serves on the Board of Directors.
Yasothai Saravanapavan – wife of Eswarapatham Saravanapavan. She holds a smaller percentage of shares than her husband and serves as the Managing Director at New Uthayan Publication (Pvt) Limited.
Lukshmee Saravanapavan – the daughter of Eswarapatham and Yasothai Saravanapavan. She is a Joint Managing Director in the company and also serves on the Board of Directors.
Further Information
Meta Data
New Uthayan Publication (Pvt) Limited does not have an official website and the official website of the Uthayan newspaper does not provide any details about its founder, board of directors or its organisational structure. As such, publicly available secondary sources were referenced. Occassionally, there are variations in the spellings of the names of individuals referenced. For instance, the CEO's name is spelled as Yashotha Saravanapavan or alternatively as Yasothai Saravanapavan. Similarly, Eswarapatham's name was referenced as "Eswara Patham, while Lukshmee's name as was referenced as Luxmee. Information on the shareholders was gathered through the annual returns available at the Department of Registrar of Companies. The most recent data was available for the year 2017. While the Media Ownership Monitor research team reached out to New Uthayan Publication (Pvt) Limited by formally requesting for the company’s information on 25 July 2018, the company did not respond to the aforementioned request.
