Noted journalist Dileep Padgaonkar, who was a part of the three-member interlocutors group for Jammu and Kashmir in 2008, passed away in Pune after brief illness. 72-year-old Padgaonkar, a former editor of The Times of India, was unwell for past several weeks and died at a hospital in Pune.

• He began his career in journalism at an early age and joined the Times of India as its Paris correspondent after receiving a doctorate in Humanities in 1968.
• He served the paper in various capacities before he was appointed its editor in 1988, a post he held for six years.
• In between, from 1978 to 1986, he also worked with UNESCO in Bangkok and Paris.
• Padgaonkar was appointed as one of the members of the three-member interlocutors group on Jammu and Kashmir, set up by the government after continuous unrest in the Valley in 2008.
• The veteran journalist had once said that he held the second most important job in the country after the Prime Minister.
• Born in Pune and educated at St Vincent High School and Fergusson College , he went to France and studied for a doctorate at the University of Paris-Sorbonne.
• In 1978, he served with the Unesco at Bangkok and later in Paris in different capacities with its Information Section.