'Diwali after Diwali'

Regional Roundup

That the Marathi papers in Mumbai would cover the Sensex crossing 13,000 should hardly surprise anyone, given this is the nation's financial capital. What is heartening, however, is the manner in which other newspapers, such as the Hindi language ones in north India, covered the event.

Dainik Bhaskar, had the news on the front page, even though it was a small single column story below the fold. Punjab Kesari chose to put not just this story on the front page but also followed it up with one on the RBI's latest credit policy and the likely impact of this on home loans. Rajasthan Patrika chose to put the item as the day's anchor on the front page, with the headline "Diwali after Diwali", that is, it's time to light fireworks even after the festival of Diwali is over. The anchor had a graphic giving the dates on which the sensex crossed each historic milestone, beginning from when it first touched 1,000.

In the Marathi papers, the news appeared as the first or second lead in almost all prominent newspapers including the Shiv Sena mouthpiece Samna. However, as expected, the slant of the news in Samna was a negative one, questioning whether this jump meant anything for the farmers from Vidarbha who were committing suicide due to abject poverty.

Among the mainstream newspapers, Loksatta was the only one which chose to write an editorial, combining the sensex and the RBI's credit policy. Other major newspapers like Sakal and Maharashtra Times carried the news on the front page, but didn't go beyond that. The Loksatta editorial said, "both the sensex going beyond 13,000 points and the RBI credit policy which has sent a signal to hike lending rates show that the economy is on a strong footing." The edit, however, also advised the common man not to get carried away by the boom in the stock market and to be careful about investing his entire savings in a few scrips based on tips. It said people needed to do some homework before investing in stocks, and if this was not possible, they should use the mutual fund option.

The Kannada newspapers did not carry the news on their front pages. All the leading dailies "" Vijaya Karnataka, Praja Vani and Kannada Prabha "" carried the news in their business sections. Though the subject was given prominent display, there were no follow-up reports, analyses or editorials.