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Since
Independence Day 2000...
Alongwith the new look, some words
about ourselves.
Who reads us
Policy-makers, for one.
Within five years, Newsinsight.net has attracted a privileged
and powerful readership within India and outside. Our
visitors include close aides of the Congress president,
Sonia Gandhi, and it is more than coincidence that on
the afternoon of 18 May 2004, we counseled her not to
accept the primeministership (Debate, "Let
go"), and in the late evening, she did let go.
Renunciates, we said, first and before anyone else, were
revered in this country, and hours later, she joined their
ranks.
And when he was prime minister, A.B.Vajpayee's advisors
read us, so did L.K.Advani's secretariat when he was deputy
PM, and the habit has remained unbroken, even as they
have gone out of power. In the high suspense during the
transfer of power, from the NDA to the Congress-led coalition,
our analyses were closely monitored. Our political, strategic,
and politico-economic analyses are high rated.
Ratan Tata, perhaps India's most visionary industrialist
today, has specially commended our work (see
letter), and Newsinsight has received attention in
the Bush White House and the US defence department, and
scores of governments and militaries around the world
scan our intelligence outputs and political and military
analyses regularly.
Giving insight
As our name suggests, we give new
insights to news, or at any rate, try to do so. We also
break stories. One of our stories in April 2001 about
a US-Russia-India-Iran plan to battle the Taliban became
a world scoop, filling numberless Google pages (Special
report, "India
in anti-Taliban military plan," 26 June 2001),
and many analysts inferred that that became a provocation
for 9/ 11, although we don't think so. The Indian Cabinet
Committee of Security considered nine representative samples
from the Indian media for formulating a diplomatic response
to China (Debate, "No
silk road," 6 November 2003), and six of them
were from our site. In innumerable speeches of political
leaders, in political responses, and in policy-making,
we have felt the weight of our ideas reflected, and this
more than ever resolves us to go on.
Our credibility
Our striking advantage is that we
take no sides in politics, and this automatically establishes
our credibility across the political spectrum. Since we
are undeviated from our motto of IndiaFirst, we see politics,
politicians, elections, and so on, purely as means to
a higher end, and therefore, we condemn political corruption,
petty politicking, and issues that detract from development
and governance like votebank and sectarian politics. Being
independent naturally brings other benefits too, like
added perspective to events, fresh new insights to everyday
developments, etc, which we share with our readers freely.
Our readers do not always agree with us, which leads to
debates on the site, but this is rare, and in any case,
we let all opinions go through, good, critical, and even
insulting. Our weekday polls are also a good barometer
of public opinion, and give added weight to our insights.
Our influence
All this makes us influential with
government and policy-makers, with political parties,
and with industrialists who recognise the weight of ideas
in a highly competitive business environment. Since our
political, business and defence specialists are so closely
aligned to newsbreaks on the ground, we are able to bring
intelligence as well as insight into our daily news feeds.
On issues like a common civil code, the role of minority
social institutions, on the redefinition of secularism,
on insurgency versus terrorism, and on the neglect of
the Indian North East, among other subjects, we have also
contributed to dramatically influencing public opinion.
We set out to influence people and governments, and, in
some measure, we have succeeded. What we look forward
to is more people-to-people and people-to-government contacts,
and these don't necessarily mean transnational contacts,
and more feedback for our efforts, only to do better what
we do.
The media & us
What we especially seek is more feedback
from the media, especially from editors, commentators,
and news managers who find our content, especially the
play of ideas, of tremendous use, and recycle them in
their own commentaries, in editorials, in news channels,
and so on. Credit, where due, is always encouraging, and
in any case, all our content is freely reproducible with
the necessary acknowledgement. The regional and language
press which is usually deprived of credible national newsbreaks
and independent commentaries are particularly advised
to consider our content to enhance their own standing
and influence with their readers.
Our readers
And from our dedicated readers, we
only seek that they spread the good word of Newsinsight.net
around. With your support and suggestions, and with your
unstinted participation in our weekday polls, we have
reached a position of influence in the media. All the
positions we take on political, security and economic
issues are dictated by your interests, so the more the
numbers on your side, the more weight will your opinions
have, and the less chance you will be ignored. |
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