The Banyan Tree Of News

The Press Trust of India (PTI) is India’s largest news agency. It was registered on August 27, 1947, less than a fortnight after independence and became operational in 1949. It’s a ‘Section 25’ not-for-profit. None of the newspapers hold­ing shares in it get dividends. The agency also owns valuable property in many cities.

PTI’s huge network, comprising 400 full-time and 500 part-time journalists, caters to hundreds of newspapers, TV stations, websites, government depart­ments, embassies, business houses and radio stations in India and abroad. Media behemoths across the world are subscribers of PTI’s service, but so are small newspapers in every nook and cranny of India, which cannot afford to employ correspondents or photographers.

Stalwarts like P.N. Haksar, Nani Palkhivala, Justice H.R. Khanna, former chief justice of India S.P. Bharucha, and jurist Fali Nariman have sat on PTI’s board. Currently, its 16-member board comprises four independent directors, including former CJI R.C. Lahoti, retired diplomat Shyam Saran and economist Deepak Nayyar.

United News of India (UNI), which was set up in 1961 by more or less the same newspapers, gave it tough competition for a while, but has fallen on hard times. Several businessmen, from Subhash Chandra of Zee to Anil Ambani of Reliance, have eyed UNI but in vain. Today PTI has correspondents in 11 locations abroad.

For much of its existence, PTI didn’t have too many challenges to face but with the advent of 24x7 TV stations, it has competition now in the form of Asian News International (ANI).

Although PTI plays it straight as a news agency, it can sometimes take on the powers that be. When former foreign minister S.M. Krishna read the wrong speech at the United Nations and when he fumbled in Parliament, PTI did not look the other way but put out a full report. Krishna had issues with PTI, but it stood its ground.