The Hindu to launch Mumbai edition on Saturday

South India's leading English daily, The Hindu, will foray into the Mumbai market with an edition scheduled to hit the stands from Saturday, it was announced here on Friday.

This will add to the portfolio of 40 editions of the newspaper being already published from 17 major cities across the country, said N. Ram, chairman, Kasturi & Sons Ltd.

"This is an important, historic moment for this 137-year-old newspaper... We are very excited about entering the vibrant Mumbai market. We are optimistic the people of the city will love and accept us," Ram told the media here.

The newspaper's editor, Malini Parthasarthy, said acknowledging Mumbai's great transformation into an upwardly rising global city, the Mumbai edition would dedicate eight pages uniquely catering to its citizens.

She added that The Hindu would attempt to capture both the buoyant and poignant stories emanating from here, on all aspects of India's "Maximum City", its financial and corporate headquarters besides a film and fashion hub.

Sachin Kalbag, the resident editor of the Mumbai edition, assured that it would reflect all these and many more facets of the city through its editorial columns.

To a query, Ram declined to comment who it would compete with, but said "the Mumbai market is big enough with space for all".

With the arrival of The Hindu, Mumbai with a population of around 17 million will have another English daily broadsheet option with the existing The Times of India, The Indian Express, The Hindustan Times, DNA and The Free Press Journal.

Present on the occasion were the company's director N. Ravi, Managing Editor Amit Baruah and other top officials from different departments.