Monthly Archives for April 2012

India Today- No.1 English Magazine Of India

Except India’s most-read English magazine,India Today, all other magazines in the top 10 list have registered growth in the fourth quarter of Indian Readership Survey 2011. While Pratiyogita Darpan, an English magazine, has made an entry to the top 10 list at No. 7, Femina and Filmfare are out of the top 10 list this time.

India Today has again registered a decline of 1.5 per cent and lost 25,000 readers in IRS Q4 2011. The weekly had lost 88,000 readers in IRS Q3 2011 while it had added 74,000 readers in IRS Q2 2011. The weekly’s current AIR stands at 16.11 lakh compared with 16.36 lakh in the previous quarter, 17.24 lakh in IRS Q2 2011 and 16.50 lakh in IRS Q1 2011.

General Knowledge Today, which made a comeback at the 2nd spot in Q3 2011, has been able to hold on to its readers and the No. 2 position in this round. The magazine has recorded an AIR of 10.92 lakh this quarter compared with 10.87 in the previous quarter, 9.77 lakh in IRS Q2 2011 and 10.02 lakh in IRS Q1 2011.

Reader’s Digest has grown by 5.5 per cent in the fourth quarter of IRS 2011. With the addition of 60,000 readers this quarter, RD has an AIR of 10.58 lakh against 9.98 lakh in Q3 and Q2 rounds. The magazine had added 28,000 readers in IRS Q2 2011.

At No. 4, Educational English monthly, Competition Success Review,has also registered a growth of 6 per cent this quarter. The monthly had an AIR of 6.97 lakh in IRS Q4 2011 against 6.57 lakh in the previous quarter. It had recorded an AIR of 6.54 lakh in IRS Q2 2011 and 6.84 lakh in IRS Q1 2011.

Weekly magazine Outlook has grown by 10 per cent in IRS Q4 2011. Its AIR now stands at 4.87 lakh compared with 4.44 lakh in the last survey, 4.56 lakh in IRS Q2 2011 and 4.38 lakh in IRS Q1 2011.

The Week has strengthened its position at No. 6 and grown by 13 per cent in IRS Q4 2011. By adding 51,000 readers, its current AIR stands at 4.38 lakh compared with 3.87 lakh in the previous quarter and 3.96 lakh in IRS Q2 2011. The magazine had recorded more than 22 per cent growth to acquire the 6th rank in IRS Q2 2011.

There is a new magazine at No. 7 – English monthly Pratiyogita Darpan. It has recorded an AIR of 4.04 lakh in IRS Q4 2011.

At No. 8 is the magazine for B-town, Stardust, which has added 18,000 readers in IRS Q4 2011. It had added 43,000 readers in the previous quarter too. Its current AIR stands at 4.03 lakh against 3.85 lakh in the previous quarter and 3.42 lakh in IRS Q2 2011.

Business Today has recorded an AIR of 3.57 lakh compared with 3.45 lakh in the previous quarter, 3.33 lakh in IRS Q2 2011 and 3.09 lakh in IRS Q1 2011.

Wisdom is at No. 10 with an AIR of 3.27 lakh in IRS Q4 2011 compared with 3.18 lakh in the previous quarter.

Related articles

Malayala Manorama: No. 1 language daily of India

Malayala Manorama remains the No. 1 language daily of the country. The newspaper has added 25,000 readers in IRS Q4 2011 after having lost 50,000 readers in the previous quarter. Its current AIR stands at 99.37 lakh compared with 99.12 in the last quarter and 99.62 lakh in IRS Q2 2011. It had added 24,000 readers in the second quarter of IRS 2011 and 8,000 readers in IRS Q1 2011.

Marathi dailyLokmat is back as India’s second most read language daily. Lokmat was dislodged from the No. 2 position by Tamil newspaper Daily Thanthi in the previous quarter. Similarly, Bengali daily Ananda Bazar Patrika has regained the No. 5 position in IRS Q4 2011. It was dislodged from the No. 5 rank by Telugu daily Eenadu in the previous quarter. One more change is at No. 7 where Telugu daily Sakshi has overtaken Tamil daily Dinakaran.

Marathi daily Lokmat, which is back at the No.2 position, has recorded a growth of 1.66 per cent by adding 1.24 lakh readers this quarter. Its current AIR stands at 75.62 lakh against 74.38 lakh in the previous quarter and 75.95 lakh in IRS Q2 2011. It had added 1.09 lakh readers in IRS Q2 2011.

Tamil newspaper Daily Thanthi has slipped to No. 3 despite adding 56,000 readers in Q4 of IRS 2011. It had added 1.57 lakh readers in the previous quarter to take the No. 2 position. Daily Thanthi has recorded an AIR of 75.03 lakh against 74.47 lakh in the previous quarter and 72.90 lakh in IRS Q2 2011. It had also added 1.03 lakh readers in Q2 and 1.73 lakh readers in Q1.

At No. 4 is Malayalam daily Mathrubhumi, which has registered a marginal growth in its AIR. By adding 36,000 readers in IRS Q4 2011, the daily has recorded an AIR of 66.66 lakh compared with 66.30 in the previous quarter and 66.90 lakh in IRS Q2 2011. Mathrubhumi had lost 1.1 lakh readers in IRS Q2 2011 but added 1.63 lakh readers in IRS Q1 2011.

Bengali daily Ananda Bazar Patrika has made a comeback at No. 5 despite losing a few readers. It has lost 49,000 readers in IRS Q4 2011 while it had added 35,000 readers in the previous quarter. Its current AIR stands at 60.49 lakh compared with 60.98 lakh in the previous quarter and 60.63 in IRS Q2 2011. It had lost 55,000 readers in IRS Q2 2011 and 54,000 readers in Q1 2011.

By losing 1,10,000 readers in IRS Q4 2011, Eenadu has lost its No.5 position. Now at No. 6, it has recorded an AIR of 59.91 lakh against 61.01 lakh in the last survey and 60.32 lakh in IRS Q2 2011. Eenadu had added 69,000 readers in IRS Q3 2011 and 41,000 readers in IRS Q2 2011 but lost 50,000 readers in IRS Q1 2011.

Telugu daily Sakshi has climbed up the rankings for the second quarter in a row to acquire the No. 7 position. After adding 1.13 lakh readers in the last survey, Sakshi has added 84,000 readers in IRS Q4 2011. Its current AIR stands at 53.03 lakh against 52.19 lakh in the previous quarter and 51.06 lakh in IRS Q2 2011. It had added 64,000 readers in IRS Q2 2011 and 88,000 readers in the first quarter of IRS 2011.

Tamil daily Dinakaran, which was growing on quarter-on-quarter basis, has seen a marginal decline this quarter and lost its 7th position. Now at No. 8, the daily has recorded an AIR of 52.27 lakh against 52.53 lakh in the previous quarter, 51.67 lakh in IRS Q2 2011 and 51.23 lakh in IRS Q1 2011. Dinakaran had added 86,000 readers in IRS Q3 2011, 44,000 readers in the second quarter of IRS 2011 and 1.46 lakh readers in Q1.

Gujarat Samachar has again registered a marginal loss. It had slipped down to No. 7 position from No. 9 in the last survey. The daily has recorded an AIR of 51.69 lakh compared with 51.86 lakh in the previous quarter and 52.2 lakh in IRS Q2 2011. The paper had lost 56,000 readers in IRS Q2 2011 but added 99,000 readers in IRS Q1 2011.

Marathi paper Daily Sakal continues at No. 10. It has registered an AIR of 44 lakh compared with 42.73 lakh in the previous quarter and 44.48 lakh in IRS Q2 2011. The daily had lost 1.73 lakh readers in IRS Q3 2011, 1.2 lakh readers in IRS Q2 2011 and 84,000 readers in IRS Q1 2011.

Related articles

IPL 5: “The gentleman’s game of cricket got murdered “

COMMENTARY: Kalyan Kar, Editor-in-Chief, Best Media Info

Minus Lalti Modi, IPL 5 gala opening was a contrived effort 

This is not to hold a brief for the much discredited Lalit Modi. But the truth is that the Gala Opening of IPL 5 was a big letdown. A sporting spectacle is not the same as a wedding ceremony or a TV channel ‘parivaar’ award show

Can’t believe Rajeev Shukla said “If the beginning is like this you can understand how the tournament will go”. God, I hope he’s wrong – Omar Abdullah, CM, Jammu & Kashmir

If the opening ceremony is any indication IPL5 is going to be disappointing – Marketing honcho Lloyd Mathias

Must say, I am enjoying the tweets on the IPL 5 opening ceremony more than the event. – Dhunji Wadia, CEO, Everest Brand Solutions

The gentleman’s game of cricket just got murdered tonight. I sleep with teary eyes and a heavy heart as I look at my old college flannels – Pratap Bose, COO, DDB Mudra

Watching the IPL opening ceremony, I know what my old man would have said. Can we please start the cricket now?! – Rajdeep Sardesai, Editor-in-Chief, CNN-IBN

If the quality of cricket on #IPL5 is anything like the opening ceremony, then god save the sponsors – Naresh Gupta, Chief Strategy Officer, iYogi

Amitabh Bachchan reciting a poem on cricket written by Prasoon Joshi during the opening ceremony.

Amitabh Bachchan reciting a poem on cricket written by Prasoon Joshi during the opening ceremony.

After weeks of sustained marketing build-up for the tournament of tournaments, it was all over in two hours on a balmy evening in Chennai, with egg on everybody’s face – everybody as in those involved in conceptualising and executing the Gala Opening for IPL Season 5. The storm on Twitter – by fans and, more importantly, those who matter in the communication space in forming opinions – says it all. It was a lame duck affair, crassly put up, lacking in finesse. Above all, unlike in previous seasons, it was held on the YMCA College of Physical Education Ground, in Nandanam, Chennai. It seems the idea of using a stadium eluded the otherwise fertile minds of the power-packed BCCI management. Somebody missed the point that this is the opening ceremony of a global level cricket competition, not a Bollywood event per se. Imagine holding an Olympic opening ceremony or an ICC Cricket World Cup or FIFA World Cup open ceremony on a college ground!

Not that I am holding a candle for the discredited former Czar of IPL Lalit Modi (I have a pathological dislike for those given to dishonesty, impropriety and self-aggrandisement, such as Suresh Kalmadi and Lalit Modi), but the choice of venue was rightly criticised by Modi on Twitter.

Coming to the show itself, viewers have witnessed much better gala events done by the likes of Star Plus and Colors with their endless list of “parivar” awards. Filmfare has invariably and successfully mounted awards nights with much greater finesse and style, with vastly more sophisticated stages and laser and psychedelic lighting. Or did BCCI plan this as a shaadi ka baraat in the first place? May be that was keeping in style with the new IPL Commissioner! And oh, he did admit that he is a politician! Was that to ensure failures and criticisms don’t matter?

The show kicked off with the best-known Indian walking. Amitabh Bachchan recited a poem written by Prasoon Joshi in very shudh Hindi. The baritone voice was very much audible, but often one struggled to figure out the last part of a sentence in a long poem. Wonder how Prasoon felt! Again, the BCCI brass missed the point: Big B is any day the best choice for a Gujarat Tourism TVC or a grand-uncle advising youngsters on the benefits of Chyavanprash. T20 is wham-bam stuff, it is all about a new genre of cricket which is raging like a storm. Let’s look at it like this: Cliff Richards is still alive, spending his late years somewhere in England. Would he be the right choice to sing at the opening of the London Olympics later this year? It is like asking Elton John, who sang the beautiful ‘Candle in the Wind’ on BBC after Princess Di met a horrific end in a Paris tunnel, to sing the opening notes at the next FIFA World Cup!

Prabhdeva. I am given to understand that he enjoys the reputation of being able to dance as though he has no bones in his plastic/elastic body, and more smoothly than the late Michael Jackson! Wow. But then, after a Google search, I discovered that he is almost 40. Little wonder then that viewers were treated to a lame, stiff, meaningless dance number. So, was he brought in to please the few thousand Chennai fans sitting at the YMCA ground and not for the millions of foolish TV viewers across this geographically huge, cricket-crazy country? Somebody got it wrong again. May be Chris Gayle would have been a better choice with a Calypso number!

Then there was the parade of the nine brilliant Captains of the IPL teams. Why were they looking so uncomfortable? Did somebody tell them to show their mettle in ramp walking? Were the two girls accompanying each of them meant to add glamour? If so, didn’t viewers deserve a better deal to indulge is some voyeurism, say, with the sexy cheerleaders that IPL is synonymous with, accompanying the Captains?

Coming to Bollywood’s stud, Salman Khan, where was the much expected ‘dabaangg’? His pink-orange trouser reminded one of a bygone era when Rajesh Khanna and, somewhat later on, Rishi Kapoor, who strutted around in colourful trousers, something that most fans would dread to wear out on the street! As for his dance gig, give us a break, haven’t we seen Salman perform much, much better at other events?

At the end, it was left to Priyanka Chopra and Katy Perry to lift the evening. Priyanka tried hard, and successfully. But then, she had a fixed time on the stage. So did singer Katy, who was brought all the way from California. She sang reasonably well, but it is her outfit that caught more eyeballs. But then, she was nowhere near the flame-haired Shakira, whose dance number ‘Waka waka’ had the world dancing after her FIFA World Cup performance.

I agree with Pratap Bose. The gentleman’s game of cricket just got murdered last night.

Kalyan.Kar@BestMediaInfo.com

Related articles

Videos: Female Gendercide and Infanticide in India and China

Between India and China, 200 million girls have gone “missing” as parents abort female fetuses or kill and abandon baby girls. Several documentaries and reports cover this phenomenon, trying to explain the causes for this deadly gender discrimination and figure out what can be done about it.

With the tagline of “The three deadliest words in the world”, the “It’s a Girl” documentary is one which through interviews and on-location filming is figuring out why 200 million girls are “missing” in India and China, and why there has been no effective actions to this problem.

Born to Die is another film investigating the rise in female feticide and infanticide in modern India.

Poh Si Teng for Global Post also has a video on the relationship between ultrasound devices, gender screening and female feticide, and whether the laws banning portable ultrasound will help stop the selective abortions in India:

The BBC’s 2007 investigatory documentary on India’s Missing Girls and people who are trying to turn the tide on a cultural phenomenon that affects all of India’s socio-economic levels: the cult of boys, and the belief that girls are not worth the trouble to raise them. The documentary, split in 3 parts can be found online (1, 2, 3).

One of the organizations trying to make the difference is the Aarti Home in Kadapa, who take in abandoned children, most of whom are girls abandoned because they are girls, and also talking to expectant mothers of female children to encourage them to have and cherish them.

Aarti House hopes to be a home for girls who were already rejected once for being girls and make sure they have a safe haven. At the very beginning of this next video, a young girl talks about the disadvantages and hardships she went through just because she was a female:

World renowned Chinese-American novelist Anchee Min, who writes strong female characters admits in this next video how she didn’t want to have a daughter, and all through her pregnancy, secretly hoped that it would turn out to be a boy, despite ultrasounds and tests because “Who wants to be a girl in China?”

Taiwanese Next Media Animation explores the consequences of the gender imbalance in China brought on by the One Child Policy and a society which values males more than females with the video and song No Girls Born (In China Anymore)

Beginning of December, a program aired on ABC 20/20 about India’s deadly secret. It was about 40 million girls who have vanished. All aborted before they could take their first breath. Their crime was that they were girls. As you know the gender ratios is India are terribly skewed about 914 girls per 1,000 boys.
In Punjab it is about 833 girls per1,000 boys. Unfortunately this happens amongst the privileged and the educated also. The only woman who has brought cases against her in-laws and husband is Dr Mitu Khurana. Please watch her story and sign her petition for justice. Please give those 40 million girls silenced forever, a voice.
Please forward this to as many friends as possible.
http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/a-mothers-fight-to-save-her-daughters/
http://gendercide.epetitions.net/
and here is the link to her website-
http://www.mitukhurana.wordpress.com/
After you sign the petition, there will be a request from the site for a donation. This donation is totally discretionary and does not in any way or form affect or benefit Dr Mitu Khurana. All she is asking for is your support (signing this petition) so that pressure can be put on the Indian authorities that the whole world is watching them in total disbelief as they make a young mother run around in vain for four years in search of justice
Sign the following petition to end the GENDERCIDE in India
http://www.change.org/petitions/minister-of-health-and-family-welfare-end-the-gendercide-in-india-stop-female-foeticide

 

 

Related articles

“masses lost touch with Kannada literature b’cos of English media”- Jogi

English media along with social networking sites like Facebook have played a big role in detaching people from the world of Kannada literature, said Jogi, litterateur and magazine editor of ‘Udayavani’.He was speaking after inaugurating the 8th University level ‘Vidyarthi  Sahitya Sammelana’, a literary meet for students organised by Mangalore University post graduate alumni association at University College, Mangalore, on Saturday.

Stating that although Kannada newspapers and magazines had been acting as a bridge between Kannada literature and the masses, people, especially in the urban areas, lost touch with Kannada literature with the advent of Englih media. “The English newspapers encourage consumerism and hardly focus on literature”, he opined.

Mr. Jogi said that it is also noteworthy that most prominent writers and literary figures hail from rural areas. “People in the rural areas are the ones who have firm interest in literature and that is why we find people from these areas shine in the field of literature”, he said.

Advising students to look for contentment in their literary works, Mr. Jogi said “One should focus on getting satisfaction even if five to six people read his work rather than aiming of becoming an overnight literary star with thousands of readers as his fan following”.

Advocating that one should make a deep study of literature, Mr. Jogi said that students must not pick their priorities on the basis of few readings. “If you say Tejaswi is your favourite writer, you must know all his works, his thinking, his philosophy…you must know that author through and through by reading all his works. Literature is as tough as medical science where you have to study the intricacies in detail”, he said.

Mr. Jogi also said that students must never complain of not finding topics to write on. “Not finding a topic is not a trait of a writer. There are hundreds of topics around us. Numerous incidents take place around us which we can convert into stories and be a story-teller.  Don’t we all use “Yen Kathe maraaya? (So what’s the story?), here in Dakshina Kannada? Real life incidents are potential story-telling topics”, he sai

Related articles

Portugal among Europe’s biggest drinkers !!

A 161-page document released this week looking into the state of alcoholism in Europe has placed Portugal amongst the top ten consumers in the continent.

The study entitled Alcohol in the European Union was compiled by the World Health Organisation (WHO) using vast amounts of national and international research findings.

The average amount of alcohol consumed in Portugal was placed at 13.43 litres per annum, above the European average of 12.45 litres.

Portugal was found to be one of the highest alcohol-related road fatalities, but still fared better than Belgium or Austria.

Absenteeism due to excesses the night before was also high in Portugal, which led researchers to reach the conclusion that those who drink in Portugal drink heavily.

Nonetheless, alcohol consumers in Portugal were the least prone to binging, which is defined as six drinks in one evening on at least one occasion each month.

The percentage in Portugal of males who admit to being binge drinkers was 12.2 percent, below the 13.1 percent of British women who said they regularly over-indulged. The figure for Portuguese women was 2.7 percent for women. Both Portuguese men and women enjoyed the second lowest rates (only Spanish males fared better with 4.8 percent while only 2.4 percent of Polish women said they would have six drinks or more in an evening). Greek males topped the list with 50 percent, followed their Cypriot counterparts with 48.1 percent.

In Europe, alcohol is the third leading risk factor for disease and mortality after tobacco and high blood pressure, according to WHO research published in 2009.

The European Union is the region with the highest alcohol consumption in the world.

In 2009, average adult (aged 15+ years) alcohol consumption in the EU was 12.5 litres of pure alcohol – 27g of pure alcohol or nearly three drinks a day, more than double the world average.

Although there are many individual country differences, alcohol consumption in the EU as a whole has continued at a stable level over the past decade.

The harms from drinking disproportionately affect poorer people, researchers also found.

Socially disadvantaged people and people who live in socially disadvantaged areas experience more harm from the same dose of alcohol than those who are better off.

The real absolute risk of dying from an adverse alcohol-related condition increases with the total amount of alcohol consumed over a lifetime. Most alcohol is drunk in heavy drinking occasions, which worsen all risks, including ischaemic heart disease and sudden death.

Alcohol can diminish individual health and human capital throughout the lifespan from the embryo to old age. In absolute terms, it is mostly middle-aged people (men in particular) who die from alcohol.

The adolescent brain is particularly susceptible to alcohol, and the longer the onset of consumption is delayed, the less likely it is that alcohol related problems and alcohol dependence will emerge in adult life.

In the EU in 2004, conservative estimates indicate that almost 95,000 men and over 25,000 women aged between 15 and 64 years died of alcohol-attributable causes (total 120 000, corresponding to 11.8 percent of all deaths in this age category).

This means that one in seven male deaths and one in 13 female deaths in this age category were caused by alcohol.

Researchers also found that countries of southern Europe (Portugal, Cyprus, Greece, Italy, Malta, Spain) have a Mediterranean drinking pattern.

In the south of the EU wine has traditionally been produced and drunk, characterised by almost daily drinking of alcohol (often wine with meals), avoidance of irregular heavy drinking and no acceptance of public drunkenness.

Related articles

“Shekhar (gupta, EIC/CEO, IE) is the general of the “Sonia bhakts” !?! Scoop is sensationalist and full of unwarranted conjectures

Mohan Guruswamy writes on his facebook page & his opinion is widely received and commented upon:
The Indian Express story this morning about two crack Indian Army units moving towards Delhi on the night January 16-17 is sensationalist and full of unwarranted conjectures. Obviously the “details” have been provided by someone high up in the security and intelligence apparatus, and the leak is meant to keep the Military circled out and kept isolated from the Government. This is not the first time this sort of thing has happened.

The first time it happened was during the funeral arrangements for Jawaharlal Nehru in 1964. The COAS had ordered up some units to be prepared to assist in the funeral ceremonies with crowd cordoning and VIP security. The DIB interpreted this as a preparation for a coup and warned the acting PM, Gulzarilal Nanda. The Army was asked to explain. Gen. JN Chaudhry replied appropriately and said the Military was sworn to uphold the Constitution and that it was commanded by men of honor.

I recall an acrimonious discussion in the early 90’s related to me by a COAS. The Indian Army was pressing for putting the BSF under full military control in J&K for effective counter-insurgency operations. The BSF balked and its then DG argued before the then HM, with the COAS present, that the BSF must be kept independent of Army control at all times as it was the bulwark against any Indian Army attempt to seize political control. The COAS scoffed at it saying, that knowing the calibre of the IPS in command of the BSF, it would not even take hours for the Army to subdue the BSF and confine it to the barracks. He asked him not to talk nonsense in front of the Home Minister to protect his turf.

The friction between the Army and the IPS is well known, and its testy relations with both the IB and RA&AW, apart from the BSF and CRPF are well known. The Defence and Home Ministry bureaucracies love this situation as it allows them to play off one against the other.

The Government will do well to get to the bottom of this news report and track down its “sources”. But who will the Government turn to trace these sources. The IB?

VK Cherian I do wish it is just “sensationalist and full of unwarranted conjectures”..But what ever is it not a good sign for our democracy, just as the row with the General…
Akhil Shastry Nehru had enormous contempt for the armed forces.He said soldiers were mindless zombies who killed on orders without even bothering to think about the rightness or wrongness of the order.
Machimanda Appaiah Deviah Akhil: In my opinion Nehru had no opinion on this. He was probably parroting Krishna Menon’s words. He was the real Chanakya in all this.
Manoj Joshi Hit the nail on the head, Mohan
Vinay Talwar VK, in my opinion Shekhar is the general of the “Sonia bhakts”, he has consistently shown his great capacity to ‘spin’ and would rank ahead of Bhajji as India’s best spinner 🙂
Niranjan Pant I agree with MG that it is probably a planted / inspired story by vested interests. With a weak central leadership, everyone has visions of grandeur or nefarious designs, especially with some foothold in the media. Highly condemnable. Every public servant – uniformed or civil – knows that whistle-blowing against powerful vested interests is a perilous task. Very few therefore undertake it The article has mischief written all over, what with fanciful bold scary headlines interspersed with slimy praise for the professional and ‘impeccable integrity’ of the General.
Prakash Nanda I am ashamed as a journalist that such a horrible story has appeared in Indian Express. My friends say that it is an IB plant. As it is becoming increasingly evident that the letter of VK Singh to Manmohan Singh has been leaked by “Babus”, not military personnel, it is another trick to prepare grounds for sacking the General. I hope my friends are wrong. It is really enemies of India who want a weak Army in India….
Rikeesh Sharma Soul selling and loyalty issues aside, this piece is irresponsible journalism. especially looking at the timing of it all. there is no need to splash sensationalism and negative news on the front page. Poor ethics…in my view!
Manas Paul Lo…this is queer development….now…its not the army but the power lobby in Delhi corridors that seeks to enforce …’force multiplier’…
Outlook’s Churumuri writes (asks, doubts, questions ?) about it his blog:

PRITAM SENGUPTA writes from New Delhi: The front-page, full-page report in the northern editions of The Indian Express this morning, that two units of the Indian Army moved towards Delhi on January 16, 2012—the day the Army chief V.K. Singh‘s petition before the Supreme Court on his date of birth was coming up—has sent New Delhi into a tizzy.

The report, anchored by the paper’s redoubtable editor-in-chief Shekhar Gupta, with reporting from Ritu Sarin, Pranab Dhal Samanta and Ajmer Singh—that barely disguises its attempts to hint at a “coup” that wasn’t—has been stoutly denied by the ministry of defence and an official statement from the defence minister A.K. Antony is due.

As the old saying goes, never believe a story until it is officially denied.

Still, is the Express story a “scoop” throwing light on something that was hidden or unknown; a rehash of previously published stuff; or just plain Delhi-style “spin”, against the backdrop of leaks and plants that have been coming in a torrent in the crossfire between the outgoing Army chief and the “establishment”?

To give Express its due, the three-deck, four-byline, eight-column banner headline suggests plenty of leg work.

What blunts the edge somewhat on the Express story is that the Army manoeuvre wasreported by Rediff.com 22 days ago—on March 13, 2012. What also muddies the waters is that the Army itself held an official briefing on the subject 25 days ago—on March 10, 2012—in Agra.

So, regardless of the official denials, is the Express story a scoop, a rehash or spin?

Related articles

Musalman: @75p, the last “handwritten” newspaper in world !!!

The earliest forms of newspaper were handwritten and now ‘The Musalman‘ probably is the last handwritten newspaper in the world. This Urdu language newspaper was established in 1927 by Chenab Syed Asmadullah Sahi and has been published daily in the Chennai city of India ever since.

With the recent technological advances, where paper newspapers are going extinct because people read them online, this personable touch is rare to find. The price of this paper is 75 Paise

It is presently run by Syed Asmadullah’s grand son Syed Arifullah and six skilled calligraphers work on this four pages newspaper everyday. With a circulation of approximately 23,000 the paper covers news in Urdu language across a wide spectrum including politics, culture and sports.

The ‘Musalman‘ is probably the last handwritten newspaper in the world. It has been published and read every day in South India’s Chennai since 1927 in almost the same form. In the shadow of the Wallajah Mosque in Chennai, a team of six die hard workers still put out this hand-penned paper. Four of them are katibs — writers dedicated to the ancient art of Urdu calligraphy. It’s tough for the die-hard artists of Urdu calligraphy. But the story we tell here is not just of their desperation and despair. The fact is, at the office of ‘The Musalman’, the oldest Urdu daily in India, no one has ever quit. They work till they pass on.

Check out this video directed by Ishani K. Dutta and produced and uploaded to YouTube by the Public Diplomacy Division of India’s Ministry of External Affairs: http://youtu.be/LUmdx2YHGcA

Preparation of its every page takes about three hours. After the news is received in English from its part time reporters, it is translated into Urdu and Katibs – writers, dedicated to the ancient art of Urdu calligraphy, pen – down the whole story on paper. After that negative copy of the entire hand –written paper is prepared and pressed on printing plates.

Presently it is edited by Mr. Syed Arifullah. He took over the charge after his father died. His father ran this paper for 40 years. It was founded by his grandfather in 1927. This paper has maintained its original look and had not compromised with the Urdu computer font.

Urdu type setting was very difficult; also, typeset work looked ugly in comparison to handwritten work. Therefore, Urdu resorted to lithography while other languages adopted typeset.

With the advent of computer, Urdu writing got great boost. It allowed calligraphic writing without the problems of lithography. Yet, a book or newspaper written by a good katib and properly lithographed is very pleasing and beautiful; computer written Urdu is no match.

Related articles

Jammu Tribune: ‘National Press’ Ingress

Shujaat Bukhari
The Chandigarh based leading newspaper, Tribune recently made an entry into the media market in Jammu and Kashmir by launching its “Jammu Tribune” supplement. During the launching ceremony, the Governor N NVohra hoped that it would also reach to Srinagar with a similar mission. 

Dedicating a few pages to the affairs of the state by the regional and national newspapers is not new but the way Tribune has started presenting it, is something significant. With the unprecedented revolution in Information Technology in last over one decade, conflicting trends have emerged in the media scene. In contrast to shrinking space for newspapers in United States and other western countries, more newspapers have started appearing on the news stalls in India. Notwithstanding fast advancements in dissemination of news through social media viz Facebook and Twitter, only 3 percent population in India has direct access to the internet. That is why Hindi press in India is getting stronger and there is hardly any decline in the readership of English newspapers through the hard copies.

In Jammu and Kashmir, the scene is no different. From not more than 30 registered newspapers in 1989, the number has already crossed 800. It is afact that only a handful of newspapers in English and Urdu have a stable readership but the trend of becoming “Editors” has not shown any sign of discouragement.

While the problems of local newspapers (except a few) have not ended, the national newspapers have started looking towards closer connection with the readers in Jammu and Kashmir. Launch of “Tribune Jammu” is part of that experiment. One cannot jump to the judgment about the failure or success of Tribune in eating up the space of other leading English newspapers in Jammu but it certainly would depend upon how the newspaper would deal with the local issues. Jammu is already tasting the local editions of Amar Ujala and Dainik  Jagran, two leading Hindi newspapers of mainland India. After expanding their bureaus, both launched full fledged editions from the city thus making a huge dent into the circulation base of once the “king” of Hindi journalism in the north – Hind Samchar – and to an extent to Dainik Kashmir Times. With a variety of material, from local to national and international affairs, both newspapers have made a difference in the market.

The English newspapers such as Hindustan Times, Times of India and Indian Express had started devoting few pages to the state much earlier. Indian Express had gone ahead by having tie up with a local newspaper. However, the experiment failed to the extent that the circulation with which these newspapers had command in the market went down to a considerable level. Since readers had developed a taste to read a national newspaper for what was happening in rest of India as also how the national media would cover the happenings in the state, they started losing the interest. This was precisely the reason The Indian Express reverted back to catering the market with Delhi edition. Even as Jammu does not have much problems with the political discourse the national media would set in, this surely would not strike a chord in politically volatile Kashmir.

The only experiment done in Kashmir so far is of QuamiAwaz, the Urdu newspaper which happened to be the mouth piece of Congress. With its good quality news presentation and lay out it was launched in 1989. It carved a space and to an extent pushed aside Aftab and Srinagar Times – the two leading Urdu dailies of that time. However, it failed the test when armed rebellion broke out in same year and could not synchronise its editorial policy with the political aspirations of the people. The result was that it was closed down only after few months of its remarkable success in the market.

Launching an edition of a national newspaper from a place like Kashmir cannot be a cakewalk. Its success is caveated with the “compromise” on a dotted  nationalistic line. Like in pre-freedom era of United India, the newspapers such as Times of India, The Statesman and Independent were ahead in technology and presentation, but they failed to make a constituency among the public for being closer to the British rule.

In that vacuum the lesser quality papers like Harijan and Hindustan Times could reach to the people in a better way as they represented their wishes. So in Kashmir, a national newspaper has to take a stand and it remains to be seen whether it can compromise on the larger “national issues”. Coverage of day to day problems of governance and daily events is not a problem for any newspapers that comes from outside but to identify its stand on political issues is the real test. Even the local newspapers face ire on account of what many people think “they are going against the dominant sentiment”.

Entry of national newspapers in Valley is not a major threat to local journalism. The way the local media would cover the happenings in Kashmir, it is not expected that a national newspaper could devote that much of space. Besides highlighting the government activities there is not much scope for the issues thrown up as a consequence of the conflict. But their arrival in the market would definitely help them reach to their existing readers early in the morning. By any stretch of imagination the local advertisement market cannot shift to higher rate structure of national newspapers so easily. It will, however, open space for more young journalists to get better salaries, which in any case is good for the growth of the institution.
Shujaat Bukhari is editor of the Daily Rising Kashmir

The Parsis, Once India’s Curators, Now Shrug as History Rots !

 DINYAR PATEL

In the course of over one year of archival research in India, I have been heartened to see how, in a few institutions like the National Archives, the country’s rotting history now has a fighting chance of survival. However, I have been deeply dismayed by one observation: the inability of my own community, the Parsis, to properly protect our own history and heritage. In many ways, the Parsi experience reflects a colossal stumbling block toward proper historical preservation in India: a dearth of public activism, support and interest, even amongst the educated and affluent.

The Parsis, long considered the most progressive and socioeconomically advanced community in India, were once at the forefront of establishing and patronizing cultural institutions in Mumbai and Gujarat. We utilized our commercial wealth to help set up libraries, colleges and educational societies in the 19th and early 20th centuries. The leading savants of Europe trained our scholars and priests, who in turn maintained meticulous collections of manuscripts and voluminous libraries.

Elizabeth Dalziel/Associated Press
A Parsi woman and a man pray at a fire temple in Mumbai on the Parsi new year, in this Aug. 21, 2002, file photo.

With some notable exceptions, we have since fallen on hard times. Our institutions did not keep up with new scholarship and preservation techniques. Many old libraries with Parsi connections would qualify as excellent research centers — if it were still 1910. Piles of 100-year-old Encyclopaedia Britannicas, along with popular English literature from the late Victorian era, gather dust in Godrej steel cabinets. Many staff members have a limited idea about what their collections hold, and trustees have looked the other way while irreplaceable runs of 19th century newspapers have been sold off for scrap. I have been in one library where I was told I was the first visitor in four years.

The case of Mumbai’s J.N. Petit Institute illustrates what has happened due to gross neglect and mismanagement. It was founded by one of the community’s most aristocratic families, one that still boasts a Raj-era baronetcy. According to Murali Ranganathan, the Petit Institute has been throwing away “entire cabinets” of valuable books. He found one such item being sold in the premises: a copy of John Locke’s An Essay Concerning Human Understanding published in 1746. The Petit Institute, he recalled, was nice enough to issue a receipt for the 40 rupees (less than $1) he paid to purchase this priceless antique volume.

parsis.net.in website
The façade of the old, two-story, Jamsetjee Nesserwanjee Petit Institute building, Bombay, 1938.

According to one “sadly disappointed” Parsi who was briefly affiliated with the library, and who wanted to remain anonymous, the Petit Institute suffers from ailments afflicting countless other libraries across the country: a lack of imagination, ambition and open-mindedness amongst trustees, as well as a complete disconnect with what actually goes on inside the premises. Tellingly, when I contacted library staff, they were unwilling to furnish details on the institute’s trustees, saying that they did not play a very important role (I eventually found contact information for one trustee, who did not return my calls). One library administrator simply acknowledged that the selling and trashing of books “happens everywhere” in India.

Why has all of this happened in a supposedly educated, advanced community? There are many possible reasons. Parsis have steadily been losing command over their native language, Gujarati, rendering an entire corpus of knowledge inaccessible — and therefore less valuable (elderly Parsis have offered me several precious volumes, telling me that they know their children will throw them out). Community institutions have failed to recruit younger Parsis as trustees and patrons, leave alone interest them in their activities.

But the most glaring problem is the hands-off approach most Parsis take toward these institutions. Within a community otherwise known for its philanthropy, there is little sense that ordinary individuals can themselves make positive contributions, financial or otherwise; there is a limited sense of public ownership and collective responsibility. When I tell Parsi audiences about rotting books and decaying collections, individuals in this wealthiest of Indian communities will, more often than not, elicit a sanctimonious “tsk, tsk” — and then promptly forget about the matter altogether. When I broach the subject of fund-raising, someone will invariably say, “Why don’t the Tatas help?,” as if this philanthropic multinational is the only actor capable of helping out.

parsis.net.in website
The reading room and library housed inside the old building of Jamsetjee Nesserwanjee Petit Institute, Bombay, 1938.

Shernaz Cama, a professor in the University of Delhi, realized the devastating consequences of public apathy when she became involved with a Unesco project to save one Parsi institution, the Meherjirana Library, in the Gujarati town of Navsari. When she arrived at the library in 1999, Ms. Cama found a Mughal sanad (property deed) on the wall covered in dust, correspondence with the court of Akbar lying on the floor and windowsills, and DDT being used on books to keep the bugs away. She quickly realized that this was not the fault of the library’s staff — preoccupied with salvaging priceless manuscripts and family trees that Parsis in Navsari were selling to scrap-paper dealers — but rather that of the wider Parsi community that was providing neither funds nor patronage.

With support from Unesco and the National Archives, Ms. Cama and her foundation, Parzor, have fire-proofed and restored the library’s 19th-century building, repaired books and manuscripts, and microfilmed important collections. Scholars from India and across the world have, consequently, descended on this sleepy Gujarati town, discovering new treasures in the library. This January, for example, one doctoral candidate from Harvard, Dan Sheffield, reported having found a portion of a 14th-century Zoroastrian manuscript, the rest of which is in the British Library, that had been missing for centuries.

In spite of the Meherjirana Library’s revival, Ms. Cama remains ambivalent as to whether even the Parsis can better preserve their heritage. “The Parsis definitely have the finances,” she commented, “but they also need the will and the interest to want to keep their history.” The same goes for the rest of the Indian public. I sincerely hope that, as Indians become wealthier and more educated, the Parsi experience proves to be the exception, rather than the rule, to how the past is treated.

(courtesy: Dinyar Patel & Firstpost)

Dinyar Patel is a Ph.D. candidate in history at Harvard University, currently working on a dissertation on Dadabhai Naoroji and early Indian nationalism. He can be reached at dpatel@fas.harvard.edu.

Related articles