Information and Broadcasting Minister Priyaranjan Dasmunsi’s diatribe against media owners is not without merit. If the proposed Broadcasting Bill facilitates a discussion on the way the media function, we need to welcome it. While the ratcheting up on the supposed attack on freedom of the press in the Bill is good, even it is unfounded….
Month: July 2006
To sell, and more
The Department of Telecom (DoT), because of political compulsions or for having faculties than compradors, has disagreed with the suggestion of the Ratan Tata-headed Investment Commission for “permitting 74 per cent foreign direct investment (FDI) in the telecom sector through the automatic route“. If one has to stomach the fact that 49 per cent FDI…
Broadband growing
At 1.5 million subscribers this year up from a few thousands last year, broadband has seen a 600 per cent growth rate, according the Internet Service Providers Association of India. Dial-up users have also grown by 24 per cent to touch 6.9 million users. Net telephony is an attraction that is bound to see rapid…
Innovation journalism
What on earth is innovation journalism? Indeed, there is a website dedicated to it. The “about” section of the site answer the question. Innovation Journalism covers technical, business, legal and political aspects of innovations and innovation systems. Good Innovation Journalism contributes to society by enhancing the public debate through better common knowledge and understanding of…
Net to the rescue after Mumbai attack
A disturbing part about the Mumbai terrorist attack was the “collapse” or jamming of the cellphone service. According to the Business Standard: “Net becomes the saviour as cell phones go blank“. The report says: “The clogging of telephone networks — both mobile and landline — during the hours of crisis in Mumbai led to an…
A message from Yahoo and MSN
According to a report in the Business Standard: “Yahoo and MSN Instant Messaging (IM) users from India and 14 other countries will be able to invite and chat with each other beginning today.” Good news!
Broadband households’ helping hand
A Business Line story leads thus: “The global entertainment and media (E&M) industry is expected to grow at a 6.6 per cent compounded annual growth rate (CAGR) to $1.8 trillion in 2010, according to PricewaterhouseCoopers’ Global Entertainment and Media Outlook: 2006 – 2010, released last week.” The expansion of broadband households is to spur the…
Cognizant and new media
This is something very inspiring. K.T. Jagannathan’s report in the business page of The Hindu say that Cognizant Technology Solutions has formed a digital media centre of excellence. High sounding, but it means the company will focus on developing tools for the new media market. I guess you can’t expect these to be available in…
The good news first
The big news is that blogging is very desi now. The Economic Times and JuxtConsult’s India Online 2006 survey has this surprise for us. A good 86 per cent of the respondents are active blog readers. Net users, according to the survey, now stands at 25 million. News figures at the bottom of the pile…
Jharkhandi special
Ever since I read the story of Prabhat Khabar by Harivansh in Practising Journalism: Values, Constraints, Implications, I’ve been keen to follow the Jharkhand paper’s success story. But visiting its website was a disappointment. You are welcomed by an atrocious homepage – a flash page, “please enter”. Today exchange4media reports that Prabhat Khabar has launched…