The Hindu Business Line : India story: ‘Reality check, cautious optimism necessary’

Ahmedabad, Nov. 26 It is time the country became cautious in its optimism in the rising economy and gave itself a reality check, according to Mr N. Ram, Editor-in-Chief, The Hindu.

At an invited presentation during the ‘Confluence 2007’ at the Indian Institute of Management-Ahmedabad (IIMA) on Sunday, Mr Ram cited statistics saying the benefits of the India story are yet to percolate to the lower strata of society, which continues to languish in poverty, diseases and illiteracy.

“There are dramatically contrasting visions of India, being upbeat as well as downbeat, from a rising economy to continuing poverty to the need for reforms in policy.”

Quoting from works of eminent journalist Mr P. Sainath and Prof M.S. Swaminathan, among others, Mr Ram pointed out that the problems faced by the farmers and other poor needed to be addressed urgently. The crisis in agriculture has been underscored by the National Farmers’ Commission.

‘Suicide SEZs’

Referring to the reported suicide by 1.5 lakh farmers between 1997 and 2006, he said two-thirds of these were reported in five States—Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Karnataka and Kerala — which account for less than one-third of India’s population. He termed these States as the “Suicide SEZs.”

On health and literacy fronts, too, the picture was not very encouraging. Describing these setbacks on human development index as a “gigantic failure of national policy for this and the next generation,” he stressed that implementation of the National Common Minimum Programme (NCMP) is a big challenge for India. “It was also a major intellectual, political and moral challenge to policy-makers.”

The government and the system have failed to address these daunting problems, he said, adding India needs to wage a war on mass poverty the way China did in the recent past, which reduced the number of those below the poverty line to 250 million in that country.

Print media boom

Assessing the role of the media in this backdrop, Mr Ram said the print media has belied fears of negative growth as language newspapers have boomed across India and the overall reach of the media and its revenue has expanded manifold. With increasing integration of technology and the media, this trend is set to grow further.

“We have a huge advantage and our future is optimistic in India where freedom of media is protected by a number of laws. The power of media would also grow further.” However, he cautioned that with this power also came a moral responsibility to get to the bottom of the issues affecting the nation.

Expansion of the “great Indian media bazaar” may be good for the profession but also called for business ethics that strengthened the moral fibre of the country. He recalled the complaints against the misuse of media, particularly the electronic media, adding that media power should not become a power in itself and camouflaged as upholder of the independence of the Fourth Pillar.

“Journalists tend to uncover everything except the happenings in their own profession and organisation.”The media should not set agenda but build it for the nation by aligning with others and consciously working for the greater good. Regretting that major media, particularly in the developed countries, are cutting down costs of news operation, he cautioned against campaign journalism, snap judgement and superficiality.