Face of Nation : Former President Pranab Mukherjee has said while newspapers were getting closed everywhere, they were also doing well in India and urged them to make a significant distinction in the field of development communication.
Mr. Mukherjee said, “It’s the uniqueness of the Indian economy that gets reflected in the fact that while newspapers are getting shut everywhere else, they are doing quite well in India. There are over 1,14,000 publications in India today, and their circulation is a staggering 488 million.”
He further said that “the world’s largest circulated English language newspaper happens to be an Indian daily. With literacy increasing every year, new newspapers are being published.”
Despite the huge expansion of internet and television, the educational aspects of the news source had been mostly ignored, Mr. Mukherjee said, “The Indian media, therefore, has a moral imperative to be at the forefront of setting the discourse about how to deploy media and communication tools for quality education programmes.”
Affirming that South Asia might be a challenging space to travel and meet people, the former President has requested journalists to present the exact picture of the nation they observe. Underlining that darkness and gloom alone shouldn’t dominate the news coverage, he continued that a conscious effort must be taken to highlight the positive and inspire changes for the better.
Praban Mukherjee was recently awarded the Bharat Ratna, at the Kalinga FCC Awards for his excellence in journalism. He was quoted saying, “The power of media could be used to engage in a nationwide endeavour to reset our moral compass.”
“Integrity and Independence are the two sides of the same coin” and both are equally important for media and each individual. “Media is the mediator between the public and the public servants. It has the power to ensure social justice and equality. It also ensures that the power is not misused,” added Mr. Mukherjee.
While talking about the economic condition of India, Mr. Mukherjee has said that the country has aspired to be a $5 Trillion economy in 5-years and $10 Trillion economy thereafter. He further said that “It will be a challenging task. Every fifth person in the country is still poor. But with its unique characteristics, the Indian economy was able to withstand the international financial downturn in 2007, even though we had adopted globalisation.”
