The Importance Of Competition
Vir Sanghvi writes in the Hindustan Times:
The general view among politicians is that the media are accountable to nobody. This is plain wrong. Individual journalists are constantly being held accountable by editors and most newspapers are far more concerned about accuracy in reporting than they were, say, ten years ago.
The reason for this is simple enough: competition.
In the rest of his excellent article, Sanghvi argues that the state of the Indian media is better than ever before, and will improve as competition increases and readers are empowered with more choice.
I agree. And that’s precisely why I favour the unhindered entry of foreign media into India.
It pains to see that there are a few people who take every oppurtunity to sell India.
Before you advocate the entry of foreign million dollar MNCs, can you do something to make sure that Union Carbide gives the amount it should give to the victims of Bhopal Gas Tragedy. please note that I am not finding fault with union carbide for accidents. Accidents can happen any where, but when an Indian COmpany is responsible, you can get compensation.
On the other hand, MNC will CHEAT you… may be easy chair critics are not affected, but workers are affected.
All those slaves of dollars should think about fellow indians before praising foreign currency inflow
Comment by Bruno — October 19, 2005 @ 1:53 pm
Excuse me, but can you point me to an example where an Indian company was responsible for a disaster and people got compensation? Mumbai’s textile workers still haven’t gotten compensation after their mills closed down, and they were working for Indian companies. The owners ran away just as easily as if they were foreign companies.
If we make a pig’s breakfast out of our laws and enforcement, we can hardly whine when people get away with murder. This has nothing to do with Indian vs. Foreign companies.
Comment by Ravikiran — October 19, 2005 @ 2:41 pm
the reason america is the greatest country on the earth because americans are fiercely patriotic. american journalists play a big role in nurturing this patriotism. remember how the patriotic american journalists brought americans together after 9/11 with their patriotic coverage. in india, people are not even 10% as patriotic and so things are in a sorry state. you don’t want to dilute this even further with foreign media who have no obligation to be patriotic to india.
Comment by sv — October 19, 2005 @ 7:42 pm
sv — in spite of Indian ownership of the media, Indians are only 10% as patriotic as Americans as you say.. then the Indian media can’t be doing too good a job.
Comment by Prashant Kothari — October 19, 2005 @ 9:52 pm
I find it strange in this age of Internet,Satellite TV that the print media has limited FDI. When information is so freely available and when print media is at a threat , why not open up the sector ? It will bring in competition and improve quality apart from giving the readers a wide choice.
Comment by cogito — October 19, 2005 @ 10:30 pm
I would accept Veer Sanghvi’s comment with a lot of salt.A newspaper, a close competitor of Mr. sanghvi’s paper in recent editorial while talking about gay rights referred to article 377 0f the Constitution which deals with the CAG.probably the Editor meant section 377 of the IPC.with that kind of knowledge base one cannot become a Lower Division clerk, but can join and become an edit writer of a famous paper.
Comment by Abha Kumar — October 20, 2005 @ 1:52 am
To Ravikiran
Please note these points
1. Compensation to workers
In 1995, The Supreme Court of India identified NIOH as the final authority to certify asbestosis cases. Compensations are given through the Employees State Insurance Corporation (ESIC). Though figures are not available on the total number of compensations given by the ESIC, according to NIOH:
Special medical board of ESIC gave 100% compensation to the dependents of two workers of asbestos cement factory (Hyderabad) who died due to mesothelioma of peritoneum.
Two workers in Ahmedabad Electricity Company diagnosed as having asbestosis by NIOH have been compensated by Gujarat High Court.
Twenty-five workers in asbestos jointing and packing industry at Mumbai were compensated by the Special medical board of ESIC.
In a lawsuit filed by the Consumer Education and Research Centre (CERC), Ahmedabad, in the Supreme Court in 1993, the court ruled that the industrial units must maintain a health record of every worker up to a minimum period of 40 years; insure workers under the Employees State Insurance Act or Workmen’s Compensation Act; or give health coverage to every worker.
2. The fraud is not limited to accident claims alone….
What about Volkswagen… ???? This is a tip of iceberg of the “Fraud that is MNC”
Comment by Bruno — October 20, 2005 @ 12:49 pm
Fraud MNCs
1. Volkswagen “deceived the state of Andhra Pradesh by acting without authority” by demanding payments for setting up the car factory
2. ENRON… got loan from Indian Banks and cheated….. If an indian gets loan, you can atleast auction his land or house and get the payment. What can you do for an American Company…..
This is what is going to happen in future… Those MNCs will get OUR money and disappear… We cannot even get a paisa from them
Comment by Bruno — October 20, 2005 @ 12:58 pm