News Channels Essay

With India’s growing importance in international strategic and economic thinking, news about the country is becoming more critical to the world. India alone accounts for over a billion of South Asia’s 1.3 billion people. The sheer mass creates news. Changes in the global balance of power, India’s economic rise, and South Asia’s continuing political and social ferment, are attracting worldwide attention. In addition, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Nepal, Bhutan, and the Maldives are on the global radar for their political developments, social upheavals, festering insurgencies, military actions and environmental challenges. Why IANS? The Indo-Asian News Service (IANS) was established in 1986, initially to serve as an information bridge between India and its thriving diaspora in North America. Today it is a full-fledged, 24 by 7 agencies putting out the real-time news from India, South Asia and news of interest to this region around the world. IANS serves several hundred outlets across the entire media spectrum, in India and around the world. It performs a whole range of other information services as well. Experienced media professionals drive the New Delhi-based group. IANS is divided into six Strategic Business Units (SBUs): IANS English, IANS Hindi, IANS Publishing, IANS Business Consultancy, IANS Solutions, and IANS Mobile. A distinguished professional with strong domain expertise heads each. Its client list includes a range of print publications, television news channels, websites, ethnic publications abroad, government ministries, foreign missions, private sector players, and multilateral institutions. The explosive growth of the Indian media sector, especially audio-visual and new media, augurs well for reliable, independent and professional news  wholesalers like IANS. News Service The News Service, in both English and Hindi, forms the heart of the IANS operation. It presents objective, user-friendly news with a global perspective. This makes it the preferred, content provider and knowledge resource on India, Indians and South Asia. IANS breaks through often cliched and stereotyped reporting about this part of the world. Its talented team of journalists and contributors – some of the best in India – produces a steady output of diverse, well-researched news and backgrounders, features, interviews, analyses and commentaries. Subjects span politics, foreign policy, strategic affairs, corporate affairs, science, and health. Aviation, energy, technology, environment, the arts, literature, entertainment, social trends, human interest, religion and sports are also extensively covered. Given collaborations with several international news organizations, IANS is often used by media as a one-stop source of all news – both domestic and international. Industry, media circles and government departments depend on it. Officials use it for policy publicity and public diplomacy. It is also a content source for our other SBUs. In short, it is capable of meeting almost all information needs. (Website: www.ians.in) IANS Publishing IANS Publishing represents mature capabilities with top-end editorial, domain and delivery skills. It provides clients high quality, effective communications products at optimum cost. Publishing has been a key driver of IANS’ growth. Its strengths are: Editorial functions; Content management, including revision tracking and error elimination; Product creation, page making, design and production; Translation services; Products for Internet and new media. IANS Publishing has harnessed the latest communication and transmission technology to produce entire outsourced newspapers, periodicals and magazines. Clients are in the US, Canada, Britain and the Gulf, besides India. Publications are in English, Indian and foreign languages. (See www.ianspublishing.com) IANS Media Consultancy IANS provides comprehensive and integrated brand and media strategies for corporates and major institutions. Under this IANS undertakes to enhance public profiles of clients through a variety of activities. These include increased publicity of their activities and achievements through professionally written media releases; public relations activities; high-quality house journals and publications on a turnkey basis; and corporate brand identity manuals for easy identification and retention. IANS also creates or revamps websites and updates and maintains them. It is also in a position to write regular summaries/specialized papers on subjects of interest to clients that require high level contacts in industry and government. IANS Solutions IANS Solutions provides all the answers for developing an Internet strategy. It blends design, technology and marketing expertise to create a Web presence delivering outstanding results. Talented website designers collaborate with our technology group to create personalized, graphically superior, functionally sound websites. IANS Mobile IANS was one of the first news agencies to harness cellular technology to launch Content2Mobile operations on both the news and information fronts. This service is available in English and Hindi. IANS Language Services In 1995 IANS started a Hindi Service. Today it virtually operates around the clock, providing quality content in India’s most-understood language. Its subscriber base encompasses all leading Hindi newspapers, websites and other news outlets. In 1998 IANS broke new ground with the launch of an Arabic Service for the  Arab world. Its website – www.alhindelyom.com – helps bridge the information gap with an important region hosting a large Indian and South Asian population. IANS Corporate IANS is the brand name of IANS India Pvt. Ltd., an independent and integrated media company with no affiliation with any major business house, political or ideological group. The media group is driven by professionals with long years of experience and with a collective vision of carving a niche in quality of content and product in a media scenario that is getting increasingly crowded with new names entering the print, electronic and Web space. In many ways, IANS is a trailblazer in the work it is doing. The key people driving IANS are: Tarun Basu is the Chief Editor and Director of the Indo-Asian News Service (IANS), India’s only private and independent news agency and content provider on multimedia platforms. Basu is one of the founders of IANS. He formed the nucleus of IANS when he left a lucrative job as India correspondent of DPA, the German Press Agency, in the late eighties to set up the bureau for the well known India Abroad newspaper in New York – the first multiedition ethnic Indian newspaper in North America. That was the first attempt to begin a two-way information flow between India and the growing and influential Indian diaspora in North America. The seed sown at that time blossomed into the India Abroad News Service which, in a subsequent incarnation that gave it a pan-South Asian dimension, became Indo-Asian News Service, the present day IANS – the premier news service covering India, Indians and South Asia and events of interest to India and the 27 million Indian diaspora spread all over the world. Basu’s aim has been to make IANS an internationally known and respected news and content supplier on both traditional and new media platforms, an information resource on India and South Asia and things of interest to India and Indians worldwide. Today, IANS is more than just a news agency – its a publishing outsource, a multimedia content provider with auxiliary services catering to  growth sectors like education and entertainment, besides being a communication consultant to institutions and companies. Basu has travelled all over the world and has been a regular invitee on the Indian prime minister’s and president’s media delegations in visits to other countries for the past 15 years. He has covered major news developments and international events involving India and South Asia. He has been a special invitee to the World News Agency Summit in Spain, the World Media Summit in China, the Beijing Olympic Games and the World Cup Football in South Africa. Basu also founded the International Media Institute of India, a multimedia training school that conducts media literacy and communication workshops for educational, research and other institutions. K.P.K. Kutty, Director and Chief Mentor, is former chief editor and chief executive of UNI and has been in the profession for 42 years. He has been involved in production of TV news programmes and documentaries too. Shibi Alex Chandy, Director is also Group Editor in charge of its contract publishing division. He has worked with several leading newspapers, television stations and magazines. Arvind Padmanabhan, Group Business Editor, has over 13 years of experience in journalism, covering virtually all media streams – news agency, newspaper, magazine, radio, television and the internet. M.R. Narayan Swamy, Chief News Editor, has been a journalist since 1978, starting with UNI. He was with AFP for 13 years, writing on Indian politics and Sri Lankan affairs. He joined IANS in April 2001. P.S. Mitra, Technology Head, is the man who keeps IANS’ extensive network ticking over. He also oversees IANS Solutions, the company’s web Solutions division.