| Business Standard has launched itself today as a Hindi business newspaper "" in addition to the 33-year-old English one. We have started with the New Delhi and Mumbai editions; other editions will roll out in the coming days. And we know that we will have company. Rival Hindi business newspapers too will enter the market in the coming weeks and months "" because every market in emerging India is going to be competitive. Also, publishers recognise that, even as "Bharat" is coming into its own, economic news has to go beyond just "India". As the Prime Minister said on Thursday evening when he was informed that our Hindi paper was about to be launched, "Indian national languages must get their recognition which is due to them ... too often the dialogue on policy matters is limited to the middle-class English speaking population, and that's not good if we are to remain a functioning democracy..." |
| The opening up of the serious market for business information follows the rapid growth and geographical spread of the broader Hindi language press. This has been driven by multiple forces "" the growing importance of small-town India, the spread of literacy in the Hindi-speaking belt, the growth of business and consequently rising income levels, and the fact that awareness levels have grown even as newspapers have become extremely affordable. Readership studies and circulation audits tell us that the biggest newspapers in the country are now from the broad belt that sweeps across the heartland, from west to east, from Rajasthan all the way to West Bengal's Kolkata. Even in the Delhi metropolitan market, Hindi newspapers sell almost as many copies as the English language press. These changes are more evident in Lucknow and Jaipur, Bhopal and Patna than in Delhi, where politicians pay more heed to the big English titles. But ask any chief minister which newspapers matter the most and the answer will invariably be an Indian language title. |
| Against that backdrop, the birth of a serious business newspaper in Hindi is a natural development. Our market research has revealed a hunger for news on the stock market, on companies and brands, on technological developments and consumer finance, on prices and interest rates. The survey findings reflect a more upbeat mood than many people might have assumed, a desire to grab opportunities, and a strong wish to be better informed on economic issues. At the same time, the business demographics of contemporary India tells us that there is a ground-level reality of small and medium enterprises and trading activity that is waiting to be covered as exhaustively as the companies that make up the Bombay stock exchange's Sensex. |
| It is now getting on to nearly six decades since the first English-language business newspaper was born. It took about three decades after that for the first of these business newspapers to register paid circulation of a hundred thousand copies. In contrast, it goes almost without saying that the Hindi business newspapers will start off more confidently, with large circulation numbers from the very beginning. There will not be advertising to match, at least initially, but that may change because the marketing world too has woken up to the importance of the heartland. For all one knows, Hindi business readership might overtake English readership in the coming years, just as it has done when it comes to the general newspapers. |
| All of this must inevitably make a difference to the country's debate on economic policy, to the levels of awareness and involvement that come with being better informed. That in turn might change mindsets, and close the many gaps that exist today between India and Bharat""which would be a service to both. |
Disclaimer: These are personal views of the writer. They do not necessarily reflect the opinion of www.business-standard.com or the Business Standard newspaper
