What do NYT, WaPo, Economist, Guardian, FT write about Modi’s India? Just read ‘Global Pulse’

As India’s stock has risen — whether it is the economy, IT industry, NRI population, or India’s role as a key diplomatic counterpoint to China — the global media’s interest here has increased.

Illustration by Soham Sen | ThePrint

What did the international media think of Prime Minister Narendra Modi before and after 4 June — the day the 2024 Lok Sabha election results were announced? Was there any significant difference from the way Indian media assessed him and the results?

Well, if you read these articles—for instance, this one in The New York Times and this one in the Financial Times—the global news media appeared to think it would be a cakewalk for PM Modi.

But there was at least one warning signal in the UK-based Financial Times. Author Ruchir Sharma wrote that Modi’s “anticipated third electoral victory might not be as decisive as expected”.

And so it came to pass. After the results, the respected British weekly The Economist, in its global podcast ‘The Intelligence’, said that the Indian strongman (Modi) had been humbled. And the rest of the world media agreed.

Precisely a month earlier, Rahul Bhattacharya had this to say about Congress leader Rahul Gandhi in The Economist: “Despite being in the game for 20 years”, he “has always struggled with basics of politics: organising, cutting deals and enthusing voters”.

Back in April, the news magazine was even more sceptical of Rahul’s political abilities.

Two months later, however, when the Rahul Gandhi-led Congress and Opposition restricted BJP to 241 seats, the UK’s Financial Times thought Rahul was important enough to interview.

This ebb and flow in the foreign media’s assessment of Indian politics during the Lok Sabha elections made for fascinating reading. How others see us is often more instructive than how we see ourselves – they hold a mirror to us.

Also, in most countries, the media reflects the opinion of the government or Establishment, particularly on international affairs, so reading the foreign media is a good to learn what they’re thinking.

Which is why ThePrint’s ‘Global Pulse’ section ought to be essential reading. This aggregation of reports, analysis, and opinion of the international media on India by ThePrint’s Shivani Mago and Zenaira Baksh is where I found all the stories mentioned above.

As India’s stock has risen in the world — whether it is the economy, IT industry, expatriate population, or India’s role as a crucial diplomatic counterpoint to China in Asia — the international media’s interest in developments here has increased.

“There’s so much written in the international press about India now,” said Janki Dave, Editor (News), The Print, who oversees ‘Global Pulse’. “And now that the general elections are over, there are stories on a greater variety of subjects that ‘Global Pulse’ will capture.”

In this Readers’ Editor article, the focus is on ‘Global Pulse’ and two other editorial products that ThePrint launched in recent months: ‘Instant Analysis’ and ‘Snap Opinion’.

News about India from abroad

Besides curiosity about the world’s opinion of us, there are several other very good reasons to keep an eye on the international media.

The foreign media with its own correspondents often based in the country, sometimes breaks stories about India, which we would otherwise miss — especially when the Indian media faces restrictive government challenges — and in some instances, even legal cases against journalists.

For example, there was a Financial Times report on the Adani group passing off “…low-quality coal as far more expensive cleaner fuel in transactions with an Indian state power utility… that throws new light on allegations of a long-running coal scam.”

Or this: The Washington Post identified and claimed that former R&AW officer Vikram Yadav was the mysterious ‘CC-I’ in the US Justice Department indictment, which alleged Indian intelligence had planned the assassination of Sikh leader Gurpatwant Singh Pannun, on US soil.

And then came another spy story from Down Under: on 16 June, ABC, the Australian national broadcaster, claimed that the Australian government had “investigated” a “nest of spies” and asked at least four intelligence officers from India to leave Australia.

This was news to most Indians.

India’s growing clout

The foreign media also explains us to ourselves. Here is The Economist’s detailed analysis of the PM’s monthly radio address to the nation, ‘Mann Ki Baat’.

And just last week, the British news magazine used data to explain why India needs to be more federal and less controlled by centralised policies.

Stories cited in ‘Global Pulse’ clearly reflect India’s growing clout as an economic and business hub: on 14 May, Global Pulse had only financial news.

The stories are chosen not only from the Western media — there’s a keen awareness of what is said in the Chinese press as well. This Global Times opinion piece by Xie Chao analysed India-China relations over the last decade and its future.

A South China Morning Post report looked at “the complex relationship that India shares with the US and Russia, particularly in light of the allegedly foiled plot to assassinate a radical Sikh leader Gurpatwant Singh Pannun”.

Then, Nikkei Asia focuses on India’s “multi-alignment”, taking the instance of the G7 summit. “Modi’s global standing has not been tarnished by his electoral setback,” the report quotes observers as saying.

“We look to reflect a good mix of stories, with politics, the economy and off beat stories too,” said Dave.

So there’s The Guardian’s ‘Indian engineers warn of prolonged blackouts amid searing heatwave’ and a BBC report about how all over India, “people are falling sick due to the heat”, while physicians say they have “never seen anything like this before”. The Guardian article, ‘Punching up against colonialism is glorious!’ The unstoppable rise of Indian comedy in the UK’ about stand-up comics in Britain, and a New York Times article, ‘At Cannes, Indian Filmmakers Show There Is More Than Just Bollywood‘, on the Indian movie All We Imagine as Light that went on to win the Grand Prix and was nominated for the Palme d’Or.

My advice to readers?

Keep abreast of The Times (UK), The Financial Times, The New York Times, The Washington Post, South China Morning Post, Nikkei Asia, Bloomberg, The Economist—and many more publications that ‘Global Pulse’ mines for some of the best writing on India, by foreign correspondents.

Snap views, instant analysis

Onto ‘Instant Analysis’ and ‘Snap Opinion’, the two new video properties launched recently by ThePrint. The videos can vary between 2-10 minutes, offering immediate comment on crucial news stories. Janki Dave is the editor for these products, too.

“We want shorter, faster video perspectives. We don’t want to wait for the end of the day or the week to have a say on important news,” she said. “In ‘Instant Analysis’, the key is to simplify issues and look ahead; in ‘Snap Opinion’, it’s to offer readers a sharp, personal perspective,” she added.

Editor-in-Chief of ThePrint, Shekhar Gupta, said in a ‘Snap Opinion’ that these products were an effort to “innovate”. ‘Instant Analysis’ was a “short capsule of analysis” of important news by ThePrint’s domain specialists, he said, while ‘Snap Opinion’ was an editorial on something ThePrint’s editors “felt strongly about, clearly…no ifs and buts…”

If you listen to Snehesh Alex Philip in this ‘Snap Opinion’, you’ll see he felt very strongly about the Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s dalliance with pro-Khalistan people in Canada.

“I think ‘Snap Opinion’ and ‘Instant Analysis’ are a quick way to reach out to the viewers, who get a balanced and nuanced understanding of issues in less than five minutes,” he said.

There are ‘Snap’ takes by other senior journalists, on subjects like the EVM controversy, the Rajkot and Delhi fire safety challenges, the drunk teen Porsche driver who killed two people in Pune, the Bengal train accident — to name just a few.

Nisheeth Upadhyay, The Print’s Editor (Operations) who had done a ‘Snap Opinion’ on the Bengal train accident, said the two new properties “contextualised important events and developments. They keep our viewers front and centre…while ThePrint’s journalists are also able to establish a direct channel with our viewers.”

‘Instant Analysis’ is already a hectic space: I’ve watched analysis on the NEET failure, Priyanka Gandhi’s Lok Sabha candidacy, changes in NCERT textbooks, the surge in terror attacks in Kashmir, Mexico’s first woman President, and the death of Iran’s president in a helicopter crash.

Pia Krishnankutty, Special Correspondent, who appeared in the first ‘Instant Analysis’ on the Iranian President’s death in a helicopter crash, said, “Analysing an international development as it happens is tricky because ground realities change from day to day if not hour to hour.”

Sharad Raghavan, The Print’s Deputy Editor (Economy), likes the immediacy of the format: “It is a very useful one because it allows you to lay out the most important facts, figures, context and importance of a news item very soon after it has happened,” he said. “I think the shorter format appeals to the viewers who are bombarded with content from every direction.”

What do our readers think? Please watch these new initiatives, read ‘Global Pulse’, and give us some welcome feedback. 

Shailaja Bajpai is ThePrint’s Readers’ Editor. Please write in with your views, complaints to [e-mail]

(Edited by Prashant)