Media ownership and independence

Big business has owned media companies before. The undivided Birlas had Hindustan Times in Delhi and Searchlight in Patna; the Dalmia-Sahu Jain combine (which later split) had Bennett, Coleman (publishers of, among other titles, The Times of India and The Economic Times); and the Tatas had a connection with The Statesman in what was then Calcutta. Even The Indian Express’ Ramnath Goenka, while never in the same business league as the Big Three of the time, once owned the country’s largest jute mill (National Jute) and mounted a raid on Indian Iron and Steel. 

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