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A day after Rupert Murdoch made a plea to allow greater foreign direct investment in the media sector, London-based Financial Times on Thursday asked the government to permit publication of foreign newspapers from India.
"We would like the Financial Times to be at the door of Indian readers every morning. We would like to invest in Financial Times in India," Financial Times Publishing Group
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CEO Olivier Fleurot said at a seminar on 'Future of Newspapers in the world' organised by Confederation of Indian Industry.
Responding to the suggestion, Information and Broadcasting Minister S Jaipal Reddy said, "We are taking a look at that."
He said allowing printing through fascimile was also being looked into.
The minister admitted that there was a dichotomy as far as foreign newspapers were concerned, particularly as they could sell newspapers in India after bringing them from abroad but were not allowed to print them.
"We are looking at this dichotomy. Our mind is not closed on publication of foreign newspapers," Reddy said.
FT, which holds a stake in Indian business paper Business Standard, currently sells its newspaper in India by getting them from Dubai. "That is the closest location from where we can get the newspaper," Fleurot said.
He said India and China were favourable markets for the media sector as the number of newspapers and their circulation has been on the decline globally, except for these two countries.