A string of eeny, meeny, miny, moes in my office library led me to a book I would have hardly chosen otherwise“ The Accidental Prime Minister” by Sanjaya Baru. This seemed apt after a politically charged week (although, when is it not nowadays?) with elections in five states hogging headlines across print and digital media with zeal and enthusiasm, the online propaganda and canvassing business in full spree - We too at Mumbai Multimedia Studio - getting the order's from the candidates well in advance!!
One particular quote caught my eye. It was attributed to a collection of essays titled “The book that I won't be writing” by H.Y. Sharada Prasad, previously media advisor to Indira Gandhi and Rajiv Gandhi. Prasad goes on to explain why he resisted the temptation of writing about his tenure in the highest echelons of India’s political corridors. “Suppose you have no urge to project yourself or play the justifier of God's ways to man or man's way to other men. Suppose you feel that what you know might not be the whole truth in the Rashomon-like ambivalence of events. Then you will come to the same conclusion as I have, and not write the book that friends expect.” I figure, in some sense, journalism at large derives itself (or ought to) from the same premise, although with a diagonally opposite conclusion. It’s a perennial question. Such thought exercises, though, help reassess and reaffirm objectives once in a while. Here at , it is to examine all aspects of the truth to the best of our efforts and eventually weave an unbiased narrative. The articles published for this week were driven by the same objective—finding answers to complicated business questions. Imagine a smartphone you have awaited for ages is available at a massive discount. Unfortunately, the moment you click the buy button, it's out of stock. India’s mutual funds found themselves in a similar situation over the past two weeks. The recent global stock market meltdown is the very discount they cannot avail with the regulatory limit for mutual funds for international investment which crossed the $7 billion upper limit set by regulators. Will RBI raise the ceiling or would the Indian investor be forced to go direct or go home? In our newsletters section this week, we delved into two deep-rooted brands Air India and Tata Sky, oops, now Tata Play. Jaspreet points out in Tokenized how the budget announcement of 1% TDS is causing more distress to crypto exchanges than the 30% on income from virtual assets. In Green Margins, we had more focus on the lens on remote sensing devices to monitor on-road emissions and combat air pollution, like this the weekend goes on and on.... In short that’s all for the week. If, like me, you are in one of the five states going to polls, do go vote. And also, have a restful yet curious, we are eagerly waiting for the announcement of schedule dates of MCGM or BMC Election in Mumbai..
Yusuf Bhandarkar - The Mumbai Multimedia Studio - Mumbai 400008
