A Look into the Ownership and Evolution of Indian Media

Abstract

This paper is an attempt to understand the form and nature of media ownership in India, the gradual changes and evolution, it underwent over the decades since 1947 and the current form of ownership patterns, mergers and acquisitions, legal apparatus governing them, advantages and lacunae thereof and the implications it is found to have to contemporary political, social and business sectors. This attempt is particularly useful since the data on Indian media ownership is so scanty, more in the case of their market and audience data and unless both of them are read together, the picture of media vis-à-vis their influence on forming public opinion can’t be understood in their entirety. This paper delineates the very basic question of who owns the Indian media, albeit in a limited capacity.