Chandra to invest additional Rs 100 cr in UNI

New Delhi, Oct 20 (UNI) Media Moghul Subhash Chandra -- who recently acquired 51 per cent shareholding in the United News of India at a price of Rs 32 crore -- today announced plans to invest further Rs 100 crore in the news agency to enable it have ''a global footprint''.

Outlining ''a dream'' to have in place an Indian news agency with ''a footprint that knows no boundaries'', Mr Chandra told media persons here that he had forayed into the news agency field -- after successes in television and print media -- to counter the existing supremacy of western agencies like Reuters and Associated Press.

''Whenever I am visiting foreign lands, I ask why they are using news about India which is distributed by western agencies... cannot our own news agencies do this job... and give it the Indian perspective as against the prevailing biases inherent in the western agency story,'' said Mr Chandra to pointed questions regarding his emergence last month as principal shareholder of UNI.

UNI, he asserted, could ''rise to the occasion'' -- given the required injection of fresh investment and necessary technological upgradation.

''UNI could assume the role of an Indian News Agency which is both competitive as well as universally accepted all over the globe... like Reuters, AP and Bloomberg,'' he reiterated.

UNI, he pointed out, had been on the decline in the recent past.

Different members of its Board of Directors and ''some public figures, who were involved in its establishment'' had asked him during the past three years to join the news agency as a shareholder to maintain the existing plurality of news and views, he said.

The transaction process was completed in September. And it was only thereafter that ''some vested interests woke up to scuttle the move,'' Mr Chandra observed referring to challenges in court -- as also an ongoing employees' agitation within UNI -- against the transaction.

UNI, he said, was unable to cover all news happenings due to lack of resources allowing ''an open field'' to its only competitor, Press Trust of India. In a scenario where many print media organisations were not subscribing to UNI, it was neither able to modernise itself nor improve the quality of its news coverage, he added.

''In fact, re-energisation of UNI is the only answer to fulfil the urgent need of having plurality and variety of news and views...

the dream of the founding fathers of the news agency....'' Terming as ''ill-founded'' apprehensions in the minds of UNI employees about possible retrenchment following his assuming the role of principal shareholder, Mr Chandra pointed out that by law any arbitrary retrenchment -- except VRS -- was ''not possible in India''.

As for VRS (Voluntary Retirement Scheme), he observed that VRS, ''as the nomenclature speaks'', was 'voluntary' and not 'forced' retirement.

About opposition and criticism against the transaction which enabled him emerge as the principal shareholder of UNI, he asserted that these ''not only confirm that we are on the right track but also strengthen our resolve to firmly move ahead''.

UNI DG NK BD1740