he Times of India

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This article is about the flagship newspaper of the larger conglomerate. For the latter's flagship
internet operations with resembling name, see IndiaTimes.

The Times of India

Let the Truth Prevail

20 August 2013 front page of the Calcutta edition of The Times of

India

Type Daily newspaper

Format Broadsheet

Owner(s) The Times Group

 Publisher Bennett, Coleman & Co. Ltd.

Editor-in-chief Jaideep Bose

Founded 3 November 1838; 182 years ago

Language English

Headquarters Bombay, Maharashtra, India

Country India

Circulation 2,880,144 Daily[1] (as of December 2019)

Sister newspapers The Economic Times

Navbharat Times

Maharashtra Times

Ei Samay

Mumbai Mirror

ISSN 0971-8257

OCLC number 23379369

Website timesofindia.com

 Media of India
 List of newspapers

The Times of India (TOI) is an Indian English-language daily newspaper and digital

news media owned and managed by The Times Group. It is the third-largest newspaper
in India by circulation and largest selling English-language daily in the world. [2][3][4][5][1][6] It is
the oldest English-language newspaper in India, and the second-oldest Indian
newspaper still in circulation, with its first edition published in 1838. [7] It is nicknamed as
"The Old Lady of Bori Bunder",[8][9] and is an Indian "newspaper of record".[10][11]
Near the beginning of the 20th century, Lord Curzon, the Viceroy of India, called The
Times of India "the leading paper in Asia".[12][13] In 1991, the BBC ranked The Times of
India among the world's six best newspapers.[14][15]
It is owned and published by Bennett, Coleman & Co. Ltd. (B.C.C.L.), which is owned
by the Sahu Jain family. In the Brand Trust Report 2012, The Times of India was ranked
88th among India's most-trusted brands. In 2017, however, the newspaper was ranked
355th.[16]

Contents

 1History

o 1.1Beginnings

o 1.2Bennett and Coleman ownership

o 1.3Dalmia ownership

o 1.4Jain family (Shanti Prasad Jain)

o 1.5Under the Government of India

o 1.6Back to the Jain family

o 1.7During the Emergency

o 1.8The Times in the 21st century

o 1.9TOIFA Awards

 2Editions and publications

 3Times Group Network

 4Controversies

o 4.1Paid news

o 4.2Anti-competitive Behavior

o 4.3Cobrapost sting operation

o 4.4Legal action by The Doon School Old Boys' Society

 5Notable employees

 6References

 7Further reading
  8External links

History[edit]

Times of India Buildings, ca. 1898

Beginnings[edit]
Diamond Jubilee, November 1898.

The Times of India issued its first edition on 3 November 1838 as The Bombay Times
and Journal of Commerce.[17][18] The paper was published on Wednesdays and
Saturdays under the direction of Raobahadur Narayan Dinanath Velkar, a
Maharashtrian social reformer, and contained news from Britain and the world, as well
as the Indian Subcontinent. J. E. Brennan was its first editor.[19][20] In 1850, it began to
publish daily editions.
In 1860, editor Robert Knight (1825–1892) bought the Indian shareholders' interests,
merged with rival Bombay Standard, and started India's first news agency. It
wired Times dispatches to papers across the country and became the Indian agent
for Reuters news service. In 1861, he changed the name from the Bombay Times and
Standard to The Times of India. Knight fought for a press free of prior restraint or
intimidation, frequently resisting the attempts by governments, business interests, and
cultural spokesmen; and led the paper to national prominence. [21][22] In the 19th century,
this newspaper company employed more than 800 people and had a sizeable
circulation in India and Europe.
Bennett and Coleman ownership[edit]
Subsequently, The Times of India saw its ownership change several times until 1892
when an English journalist named Thomas Jewell Bennett, along with Frank Morris
Coleman (who later drowned in the 1915 sinking of the SS Persia), acquired the
newspaper through their new joint stock company, Bennett, Coleman & Co. Ltd.
Dalmia ownership[edit]
Sir Stanley Reed edited The Times of India from 1907 until 1924 and received
correspondence from major figures of India such as Mahatma Gandhi. In all he lived in
India for fifty years. He was respected in the United Kingdom as an expert on Indian
current affairs.
Bennett Coleman & Co. Ltd was sold to sugar magnate Ramkrishna Dalmia of the
industrial family, for ₹20 million (US$280,000) in 1946, as India became independent
and the British owners left.[23] In 1955 the Vivian Bose Commission of Inquiry found that
Ramkrishna Dalmia, in 1947, had engineered the acquisition of the media giant Bennett
Coleman & Co. by transferring money from a bank and an insurance company of which
he was the Chairman. In the court case that followed, Ramkrishna Dalmia was
sentenced to two years in Tihar Jail after having been convicted of embezzlement and
fraud.[5]
Most of the jail term he managed to spend in hospital. Upon his release, his son-in-
law, Sahu Shanti Prasad Jain, to whom he had entrusted the running of Bennett,
Coleman & Co. Ltd., rebuffed his efforts to resume command of the company. [5]
Jain family (Shanti Prasad Jain)[edit]
In the early 1960s, Shanti Prasad Jain was imprisoned on charges of selling newsprint
on the black market.[24] And based on the Vivian Bose Commission's earlier report which
found wrongdoings of the Dalmia – Jain group, that included specific charges against
Shanti Prasad Jain, the Government of India filed a petition to restrain and remove the
management of Bennett, Coleman and Company. Based on the pleading, the Justice
directed the Government to assume control of the newspaper which resulted in
replacing half of the directors and appointing a Bombay High Court judge as the
Chairman.[25]