Media, BJP and corporate companies have direct relationship: Magsaysay Awardee P Sainath
Bengaluru, September 2: Magsaysay awardee P Sainath said that as there was a close relationship between the media, BJP and corporation companies, more than 90 per cent of the news appeared in the media were related to BJP.
Speaking at a special lecture on Media and Rural India organized by Suchitra in memory of Dr U.R Ananthamurthy here on Sunday, he said that the BJP has been implementing the laws to support the corporate companies. By privatizing the mining, banking and education, the BJP has encouraged the corporate companies to make huge profits. In gratitude to this, the media houses have been telecasting news in favour of the BJP, he said.
Majority of the media houses were in the hands of corporate companies. So, they telecast the news which suits their interests as the news for the people of the country. So, the farmers suicides, death of hundreds of people and damage due to flood in Kerala would not become the major issues for media, he said.
When there was plague outbreak in the country during 1920s, the media had played a major role in creating awareness among people. But nowadays, the media houses have restricted themselves to the news and stories of industrialists or businessmen, religious institutions and political parties and their leaders. Major leaders and social reformers like Raja Ram Mohan Rai, Gandhi, Dr BR Ambedkar, Bhagat Singh had become the journalists. Besides the social revolution, they had also enhanced the knowledge of people. In view of this, the main characteristic of a journalist was to go hand-in-hand with the social change, he said.
“During 1990, there was no billionaire. But in between 2000, and 2018, hundreds of billionaires were born. Though crores of farmers and labourers worked day and night, they could not live their life and were committing suicide. But what is the reason for increasing the number of billionaires year on year?”
- P Sainath, Senior Journalist
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Rupee falls 9 paise to record low of 90.87 against US dollar in early trade
Mumbai (PTI): The rupee plunged 9 paise to a record low of 90.87 against the US dollar in early trade on Tuesday, weighed down by sustained FII outflows and no breakthrough in the India-US trade deal.
However, a weaker greenback and a decline in global crude oil prices capped further losses in the domestic unit, according to forex traders.
At the interbank foreign exchange, the rupee opened at its all-time low of 90.87 against the US dollar, down 9 paise from its previous close, and traded in a narrow range of 90.77- 90.87 in early trade.
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The rupee on Monday settled at a new all-time low of 90.78 against the US dollar, registering a loss of 29 paise over its previous close, weighed down by uncertainty over an India-US trade deal and persistent foreign fund outflows.
"The US-India trade deal still seems to be off by a distance with the Commerce Secretary saying the first phase will be signed before the end of the year and news that we are closest to the deal being signed. The uncertainty has clouded the recovery on the USD/INR pair as the rupee opened lower with dollar buying happening every day," Anil Kumar Bhansali, Head of Treasury and Executive Director, Finrex Treasury Advisors LLP, said.
Even a reduction in trade deficit on Monday could not bring about a recovery in the rupee with Foreign Institutional Investors (FII) outflows continuing, he added
According to the latest government data released on Monday, India's trade deficit narrowed to a five-month low of USD 24.53 billion in November, as exports rebounded by 19.37 per cent to a six-month high of USD 38.13 billion after contracting in October, driven by higher shipments of engineering and electronics goods.
At the same time, the country's imports dipped by 1.88 per cent to USD 62.66 billion due to a fall in the inbound shipments of gold, crude oil, coal, and coke.
FIIs sold equities worth Rs 1,468.32 crore on Monday, according to exchange data.
Also, wholesale price inflation stayed in the negative for the second consecutive month in November at (-) 0.32 per cent, even though there was an uptick in prices of food articles like pulses and vegetables on a month-on-month basis, government data showed on Monday.
Wholesale Price Index (WPI)-based inflation was at (-) 1.21 per cent in October and 2.16 per cent in November last year.
Meanwhile, the dollar index, which gauges the greenback's strength against a basket of six currencies, was trading 0.03 per cent lower at 98.27.
Brent crude, the global oil benchmark, was trading 0.61 per cent lower at USD 60.19 per barrel in futures trade.
On the domestic equity market front, the 30-share benchmark index, Sensex, declined 363.92 points to 84,849.44 in early trade while the Nifty was down 106.65 points to 25,920.65.
