Let me first start of this blog by saying that Times Of India (aka TOI) lacks leadership, ethics in the business of journalism. This news paper has not evolved a bit reflecting emerging India. This news paper still continues to fool people by diplomatic reporting.
There is a spam email which is floating around from long time (i first encountered it around 1998) and it being refined and re-refined adding many more and more lies or facts which cannot be substantiated.
Here comes our beloved Purandeshwari, minister of state for HRD, who read a note in Rajya sabha.
Quote
“The extent to which desis have made an impact in the US was reeled off in the Rajya Sabha — as many as 12% scientists and 38% doctors in the US are Indians, and in NASA, 36% or almost 4 out of 10 scientists are Indians.
If that’s not proof enough of Indian scientific and corporate prowess, digest this: 34% employees at Microsoft, 28% at IBM, 17% at Intel and 13% at Xerox are Indians.
And the House of Elders also heard some startling facts about a country that’s still stuck with a Third World tag — 20% of gold in the world is used by Indians and nine out of 10 diamonds used in the world are made in India. ”
She says that all this is because of country’s higher education system and the state of research.
Back to blogging…….
Purandeshwari being an HRD is misinformed about the successes of Indians abroad. For the big mouth she opened, misguided and misinformed is not an excuse at all for this minister of state. Her open lies to members of Rajya sabha is an insult and also injustice to the job she is doing. She should be politely told to give up the job or be proactive in getting the facts from several sources and do independent analysis before speaking in the House.
This episode also scares me a lot on the quality of information that is being read/spread by several ministers of State.
TOI on March 11, 2008 reported what Purandeshawari said in the House and slightly exaggerated them to look even more glorious. Instead of criticizing the minsiter for lack of research and misinformation on their news paper (TOI lacks standards and objectivity), they are now playing on both sides of the coin. As soon as people started poring in with comments screaming ‘LIES’, the news paper is now taking the side of readers and blaming spam for the entire episode.
When does our Indian news papers be half as good as Nytimes, WashingtonPost ?
Never is my answer.
Filed under: Finance India, India blogs, Indian Bloggers, 36% of nasa, emerging india, India, minister of state, Purandeshwari, times of india, timesofindia, TOI
Indian bloggers mania: sridhar kondoji 
Hey, while reading your post, I read ‘diplomatic reporting’ as ‘dramatic reporting’! Later when I thought that came from my subconscious!
Agreed, 100%, TOI once-upon-a-time-my-fav-newspaper has become utter trash!
by diplomatic reporting, i meant reporting by not taking sides and playing safe like an innocent child.
We all know Indian news papers especially times of india reporting misleading reports only to annoy readers and sensationalize stories by alarming headlines.
Thanks for reading
Sri, if you knew the kind of unprofessionalism that goes on in the times of india you would understand why this happened.
Just read the regular columns in the paper. They are full of rubbish and published only because of famous names. It isn’t even as if they are celebrities, because people want to read rubbish written by celebrities. But no one wants to read rubbish written by celebrity journalists! Who cares if a journalist is famous or not! he has to write good hardhitting stuff.
[…] the Washington correspondent of the same group exposed the hoax. The newspaper report has cleverly blamed the Rajya Sabha member and the email itself for the […]
Nita,
You are right. People read rubbish because that is available and there is no better alternative.
This is the best time to take advantage of this situation and someone needs to step and start a News Paper of international standard.
With all due respect to all of you who are criticizing ‘The Time of India’ I have to disagree with you that the paper has not evolved with the changing time. I have been a regular reader of this newspaper for more than 10 years and I must admit that it’s one of the best newspaper in India. Please don’t get distracted by these minor incident or the gossip columns in Delhi Times. Some of the best brains in India writes for ‘TOI’ and it’s one of the most important and trustworthy source for everything about India. I don;t work for them nor I am involved with them in any way. What I am saying is my own personal experience of reading this newspapers for years. Regarding this incident of spam email, I think that it’s the mistake of the reporter and we should view it in that way only. Please don’t blame the whole newspaper for this error.
Excuse me, this article is not informative as it is a way to flame our country… Please, don’t act like an idiot saying “When does our Indian news papers be half as good as Nytimes, WashingtonPost ? Never is my answer.” I know one thing about you, you were born in America and lack any form of Indian pride. You are not fit for saying “our newspaper”. Your culture has died because of the American culture. I understand why the Chinese wanted to block out all American influence during the Chinese Cultural Revolution. Americans are a menace! Call your old country a third world country and expect me to think you have any Indian traits besides look and name? Say “our” when you talk about things like American racism and lack of higher education! “Our racism” and “Our lack of higher education” is what you should say.
Dont make conclusions of our media with just one incident. I could say your country, America, has thought that Iraqis were responsible for the destruction of the Twin Towers. If anything could represent incompetence of media, that little incident did…
Hi Navneeth,
Every article need not ne informative as they can be opinions just like mine.
I don’t know, what made you think that iam american, but that is wron conclusion.If you think my opinion is wrong, then come out with your opinion on our newspapers. I will respect your opinion. Let readers decide whom to trust and whom not to trust based on the content.
The incident i reported here is not just first occurence. There were many in the past and many more occurred afterwards too.
TimesOfIndia is a very cheap newspaper. Thats it. This is my opinion and is true as of today.
They do al sorts of tricks to spice up the article and arouse audience.
The recent article with title “Bush blames india for food inflation….” is one of them.
Other newspapers too carried the same piece later on.
TimesOfindia is notorious for not doing due dilligence before putting it out on their paper. They just dole out content at will.
Thanks for stopping by.
Hi Navneeth,
contd…..
So you think that racism is a western symptom especially american. Wow. This explains your age and also inexperience.
Racism exists everywhere and in India too. Don’t we identify and tease people by regions like “South Indians”, “North Indians” ?
Don’t we call Tamilians as “Sambhar”?
Don’t we call Punjabis as “sardars”?
You are saying that Americans lack higher education. As percentage of population, We are at the bottom in terms of education, forget about higher education.
In pure numbers, we may outnumber Americans in educated population, but you got to admit that innovation comes out of america and we have to respect that. There is a lot to learn from America and there is a lot to hate about america.
We just have to pick the right things and move on.
Just take it easy and don’t read too much into our newspapers.
Thanks
Sri
[…] 36% of NASA are Indians and 100% of Times of India (TOI) is trash Reply […]
Hello Sri , I just don’t understand why Indians always like to Over glorify themselves and show other cultures and system as bad , Will that make Indian perfect . After a discovery or innovation Indian will come up with something that this existed in their history with some Sanskrit name. TOI rubbish .