Taking on the world

REGIONAL ROUNDUP

The Hindi media bypassed the news on the BSNL tender or the report of the Prime Minister's Economic Advisory Council on how growth in the current year would be 9 per cent, higher than the projections made by others. Rather, nearly all business sections covered the news of Reliance Communications acquiring US data networking solutions firm Yipes.

Dainik Bhaskar took this story as the lead on its business page in the July 17 edition, with the headline: "Reliance Communications makes Rs 1,200 crore acquisition". The paper reported the Indian company had opted for Yipes because the US firm has a 22,000 km optic fibre cable network under its belt and is active in 14 American cities. The report was accompanied by a picture of Reliance Communications Chairman Anil Ambani. Rajasthan Patrika and Dainik Jagran also took this story on their business pages in the July 17 editions.

Pakistan continued to hog the headlines during the past week, with the suicide bombing in Islamabad on July 17, that resulted in the death of 22 people, making it to the front pages. Punjab Kesari took it as the lead story in its July 18 edition, detailing how one bomb after the other rocked a public gathering waiting to hear suspended Chief Justice, Iftikhar Mohammed Chaudhry. The report was accompanied by a picture of the scene of the blasts.

Though the BSNL tender story found no mention in the Telugu print media, leading dailies carried the Prime Minister's Economic Advisory Council's report on the economy, which is expected to grow at a rate of 9 per cent during this fiscal. The reports were carried on the business pages. The translated versions of agency copies, however, were carried as two-column stories on Tuesday.

A day before, Andhra Jyothi splashed on its front page an exclusive report on the hike in milk prices in the state as the second lead. With the headline, "Milk too becomes dearer", the daily said private dairies in the state excluding Vijaya and Mother Dairy, on the pretext of increasing procurement and manufacturing costs, had issued circulars to agents stating that they would be hiking milk prices from Rs 18 to Rs 19 per litre effective Monday.

Quoting a recent DataQuest survey report, Vaartha on Monday carried an anchor story on its business page on the top 20 IT companies that have been operating in India, including IBM, Microsoft, Intel and Infosys. These companies have garnered a total turnover of $28 billion during 2006-07.

The BSNL tender and the report of the PM's Economic Advisory Council did not receive much attention in the Kannada press. Both were carried in the business sections of the newspapers. A majority of the newspapers used news agency reports.

Local issues dominated the Kannada press. The police have intensified action against Naxals based in Western Ghats. Last week, five Naxals, including two sympathisers, were killed by the police in an encounter. Subsequently, the Naxals killed a petty trader and a police sub-inspector. The issue is being widely reported in the Kannada press and continues to receive coverage on the front page. It has created a furore in the ongoing session of the legislative assembly.

Market leader Vijaya Karnataka took the government to task in its editorial: "Karnataka, unlike other Naxal-affected states, does not have feudal lords ruling over peasants. Land reform policies have ensured fair distribution of land among the farmers. Naxals are trying to build a base in Karnataka by espousing irrelevant causes. The government should quell this uprising at the earliest with the assistance of the centre."