Regional Indian Languages Newspapers and Their Reach

The newspapers in India can be easily categorized on the basis of circulation, language and medium of communication. On the basis of the language, there are many different newspapers since there are many different languages spoken in this country. The English news is read by people in every part of the country and this might make one believe that perhaps these are the most read ones in the country. However; the same is not true since the readership trends indicate that the Hindi newspapers steal a march over the English news on the readership front. Even though the spread of the English newspapers is more than the Hindi ones, it is the high density of population of north Indian Hindi speaking states which gives these newspapers a lead over the ones of other language. Besides the Hindi Magazines and the English papers, Urdu, Marathi, Tamil, Oriya, Punjabi and Bengali newspapers also cater to the different linguistic regions of the country.

On the basis of circulation, the newspapers can be categorized as national, regional or even local. The national newspapers have a readership across different states and linguistic regions of India while the regional ones are more focused within one state or, to some extent, in the adjoining areas of the neighboring states. The local ones have a very limited circulation, covering only the news of one small part of the state or a city.

On the basis of medium of communication, the news could be in the print media, the electronic media and on the internet based media (computers and mobiles). While people have long been conversant with the print and electronic media for reading or listening to the news headlines, the internet based media is far more decentralized involving greater role of public participation. Whenever you happen to read the news on your computer or on the mobile, you can also give your opinion about it. This is one a distinct advantage of the internet based media that the public participation can be done with ease. English news media is quite strong on the internet but even the regional editions of the magazines and newspapers are read to a good extent on the internet. Every media group has its own editions of the multiple language e-news websites.

Delivery of news headlines is also done on the mobiles of the customers. In fact, customers have a choice on what all news they want on their mobiles. For people on the move, any movement of the share prices or the exchange rates, or even the fast changing political situation can be known in real-time by getting the news to stream in the mobile through the service provider or by using the online editions of the news on the mobiles. Even the online news portals, irrespective of their language, are optimized for mobile usage so that the readers can check the full news coverage (not just the news headlines) on cell phones from anywhere and at anytime.

Politics of ‘change’ - News Headlines India

Narrow personal rivalries have driven political decisions in Tamil Nadu since the 1970s. There's more in store for the state as the current CM goes all out to overturn many key projects of the previous government, writes Sundharabuddhan

Politics in Tamil Nadu is in a league of its own. When there is no essential ideological difference between parties, politics based on individual rivalry is unaviodable. This is what Tamil Nadu has been witnessing since the mid 1970s.

AIADMK, an offshoot of DMK, emerged out of the personal rivalry between MG Ramachandran and M Karunanidhi in 1972, when the latter ousted the former from the DMK. Of course, there are some minor differences between these two main political rivals of Tamil Nadu but there is none when it comes to political praxis.

Irrespective of his political convictions, Karunanidhi would do anything to topple Jayalalithaa and vice versa. The bitterness between the heads of ADMK and DMK has always been on the rise and when Jayalaithaa became the general secretary of ADMK it reached its peak.

They cannot see eye to eye on any matter. So, what is happening in Tamil Nadu now, reversing the previous government's policies and actions, is not surprising. This game between Karunanidhi and Jayalaithaa has been keeping political observers in good humour but at the expense of the people's welfare.

This time, as soon as she was sworn in, she declared that the new Secretariat building, a pet project of her predecessor, would be converted into a super-speciality hospital. There was almost no opposition to this move from the people because many perceived the new Secretariat building as a waste of public money.

She also scrapped the Kalaignar Medical Insurance Scheme and replaced it with a new one that gives more benefits to patients. She did away with the free TV schemes and introduced free laptops to students and many other freebies.

Recently, she sacked six Cabinet colleagues but that didn't evoke much criticism except some mild murmurs from certain quarters. Many saw it as internal matter of the ADMK. However, her announcement to shift the Anna Centenary Library from Kotturpuram to the DPI campus at Nungambakkam has provoked severe opposition from both the public and intellectuals.

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