The Times of India is an Indian English-language daily newspaper. In 2008, the newspaper reported
that with a circulation of over 3.14 million it had been certified by the Audit Bureau
of Circulations as the world's largest selling English-language daily, ranking it as the
third largest selling newspaper in any language in the world and the largest selling newspaper
outside Japan. According to the Indian Readership Survey 2012, the Times of India is the most
widely read English newspaper in India with a readership of 7.643 million. This ranks
the Times of India as the top English daily in India by readership. It is owned and published
by Bennett, Coleman & Co. Ltd. which is owned by the Sahu Jain family.
History
Beginnings The Times of India was founded on 3 November
1838 as The Bombay Times and Journal of Commerce in Bombay. Published every Saturday and Wednesday,
The Bombay Times and Journal of Commerce was launched as a semi-weekly edition by Raobahadur
Narayan Dinanath Velkar, a Maharashtrian Reformist. It contained news from Britain and the world,
as well as the Indian Subcontinent. The daily editions of the paper were started from 1850.
In 1860, Robert Knight the then editor bought out the Indian shareholders and merged with
the rival Bombay Standard, and started India's first news agency. It wired Times dispatches
to papers across the country and became the Indian agent for Reuters news service. In
1861, he changed the name from the Bombay Times and Standard to The Times of India.
Knight fought for a press free of prior restraint or intimidation, frequently resisting the
attempts by governments, business interests, and cultural spokesmen and led the paper to
national prominence. . In the 19th century, this newspaper company employed more than
800 people and had a sizeable circulation in India and Europe.
As Bennett & Coleman Subsequently, The Times of India saw its ownership
change several times until 1892, when Thomas Bennett and Frank Morris Coleman in 1915)
acquired the newspaper through a new company they had formed Bennet, Coleman & Co. Ltd.
Under Dalmia's In 1946, they sold the company to sugar magnate
Ramkrishna Dalmya, of the then-famous industrial family, Dalmiyas, for Rs 20 million. In 1948,
Dalmiya had to sell the newspaper to his son-in-law Sahu Shanti Prasad Jain to pay off a debt
that he owed to an insurance company. Under Government of India
In the early 1960s, Jain was imprisoned on charges of selling newsprint on the black
market, and the Government of India took over the newspaper replacing half of the directors
and appointing Bombay High Court judge as the Chairman.
Jain Family In 1976, during the emergency in India, the
ownership of the newspaper was transferred back to Ashok Jain.
Editions and publications
The Times of India is published by the media group Bennett, Coleman & Co. Ltd. This company,
along with its other group companies, known as The Times Group, also publishes The Economic
Times, Mumbai Mirror, Pune Mirror, Bangalore Mirror, Ahmedabad Mirror, the Navbharat Times,
the Maharashtra Times, Delhi Times, Bangalore Times and Ei Samay.
The Times of India has its markets in major cities such
as Mumbai, Delhi, Chennai, Kolkata, Bangalore, Hyderabad, Indore, Jaipur, Ahmedabad, Surat,
Coimbatore, Madurai, Trichy, Puducherry, Patna, Pune, Calicut, Kochi, Lucknow, Nagpur, Nashik,
Panaji, Mysore, Hubli, Mangalore, Bhubaneswar, Visakhapatnam, Chandigarh, Raipur, Ranchi,
Guwahati, Trivandrum, Aurangabad, Kolhapur, Bhopal and
Varanasi Controversies
FERA Violation charges On 3 July 1998, Ashok Kumar Jain, then Chairman
of Bennett, Coleman & Co. Ltd., parent company of The Times of India was arrested in his
Mumbai residence after 18 months of legal wrangling with Enforcement Directorate for
alleged violations of illegal transfer of funds to a tune of 1.25 million USD to an
overseas account. Shortly after arrest Ashok Jain complained of chest pain and got admitted
to hospital and later would leave to USA where he passed away in 1999. Also, the Times of
India was accused of distorting facts pertaining to the case,even giving Ashok's indictment
by the Enforcement Directorate the tint of a larger conspiracy against the Jain community
in general. The then BJP leader Atal Bihari Vajpayee accused
the then Prime minister I. K. Gujral of shielding the Jains due to family relations
Editorial controversies On 26 June 1975, the day after a state of
emergency was declared in India, the Bombay edition of The Times of India carried an entry
in its obituary column that read "D.E.M O'Cracy beloved husband of T.Ruth, father of L.I.Bertie,
brother of Faith, Hope and Justica expired on 26 June". The move was a critique of Prime
Minister Indira Gandhi's 21-month state of emergency, which is now widely known as "the
Emergency" and seen by many as a roundly authoritarian era of Indian government.
In 1998, the summary dismissal of then editor H.K. Dua was attributed to his pursuit of
an independent editorial policy that did not suit the interests of the promoters of the
group. A complaint was filed by People's Union for Civil Liberties in this matter with Press
Council of India. The PCI censured The Times of India.H.K. Dua later claimed that his dismissal
was retaliation for his refusal to comply with Ashok Jain's request to help him out
of his FERA violation case by ED, using his editorial position to build up public support
besides lobbying with politicians. On 6 July 2012, The Times of India published
an article which reported that Mauritius foreign minister Arvin Boolell, who was on an official
visit to India during this period, had stated that Mauritius was willing to cede its Outer
island, that is the Agaléga Islands, to India in exchange for the maintenance of the Double
Taxation Avoidance Agreement between India and Mauritius. The Minister of Foreign Affairs
of Mauritius later denied the claims of handing over the Agaléga Islands to India. He also
denied that he had named the Agaléga Islands in his conversation with the journalist of
The Times of India and pointed out that the TOI had "a hidden agenda" as it was not the
first time that TOI had done this. The Minister claims that he talked to the reporter who
wrote the article and that the reporter had "apologized", following the publication of
this article. The High Commission of Mauritius in India issued a statement and explained
that "this information is erroneous, false and malicious": "Never was the issue of Agaléga
raised either on a stand-alone basis or as part of the double-tax avoidance agreement
between India and Mauritius". He explained that the Mauritian Minister had granted several
interviews to the Indian press and he at no time discussed the issue of Agaléga. The
TOI published another article on 6 July 2012 with the title "Minister clarifies Mauritius
island offer" and mentioned that it had knowledge about an earlier proposal about the Agaléga
Islands and had therefore put a question on the two islands to which the minister had
responded. However the TOI did not mention that the offer of Agaléga islands was denied
by the Government of Mauritius. Times Group Network
Zigwheels: A website focused on cars, including reviews, road tests, and other special features.
Speaking Tree: A spiritual network intended to allow spiritual seekers to link spiritual
seekers with established practitioners. Healthmeup: A health, diet, and fitness website.
Notable employees Samir Jain, Vice-Chairman & Publisher
Vineet Jain, MD, current Chairperson Jaideep Bose, Editorial Director, TOI
Nataranjan Bohidar, first Brand Manager in the history of The Times Group
Rahul Joshi, Editorial Director, ET Arindam Sengupta, Executive Editor, The Times
of India Ravi Dhariwal, CEO
Shrijeet Mishra, COO Jug Suraiya
Swaminathan Aiyar R. K. Laxman
Alfred D'Cruz, first Indian sub-editor of TOI in 1947
Shobha De, columnist M J Akbar, Columnist, "The Siege Within" and
former Editorial Team Chetan Bhagat, Columnist, Sunday TOI
Shikha Sahu, DGM, TOI Recent updates
In late 2006, Times Group acquired Vijayanand Printers Limited. VPL used to publish two
Kannada newspapers, Vijay Karnataka and Usha Kiran, and an English daily, Vijay Times.
Vijay Karnataka was the leader in the Kannada newspaper segment then.
In April 2008, the Chennai edition was launched. The paper's main rivals in India are Hindustan
Times, The Indian Express and The Hindu, which are second, third, and fourth by circulation,
respectively. In February 2013, the Kolhapur edition was
launched. References
Further reading Auletta, Ken: “Citizens Jain – Why India's
Newspaper Industry is Thriving“. The New Yorker, 8 October 2012, Pages 52 to 61.
Hirschmann, Edwin. "An Editor Speaks for the Natives: Robert Knight in 19th Century India,"
Journalism Quarterly 63#2 pp 260–267 External links
Official website The Times of India ePaper
Times Syndication Service Content licensing and syndication wing of The Times Group.
Citizen Reports from Hyderabad for latest news and updates