 The panel discussion is on the topic digital India and digital media a partnership for building a connected nation We have an eclectic panel of speakers to discuss the topic. I will be requesting them right here on stage Let me I will be handing over this session of course to our sessions chair Mr. Sinvani to kindly take the discussion forward Good morning everyone and thank you DNPA for having us here a topic India and digital media a partnership for a connected nation So I think it's pretty wide and Just to ensure that we are on track and we adhere to the timelines. I think we have decided on a protocol I will lead every question with one person and then follow up with another one And then we leave it open to anybody in the panel to add to that and I think it's a large panel Typically we do very well with half of this size. So but we would like to have everybody participate so I'll start first with Prasad and The first question I want to take on is How digital media and digital India partners in this progress if you can elaborate on that one for the group So digital India, of course, we've seen the benefits come out of that in terms of just democratization of information and information is What the whole digital ecosystem is providing to a lot of citizens to our consumers and that's empowerment In a sense Good collaboration would be To not just tell people about how they are impacted by various government schemes and policies for example, but also In the news responsible newsroom I fear that we we should do more perhaps to say where these policies are failing where they are not reaching out to the right people and Where the government can have more impact. So I think that Feedback mechanism should be completed in a much better way for digital India to collaborate with digital media more closely Now it would you like to kind of add to that? So I think just to take a step back on this I mean I think on digital India in particular we've had four five revolution in this country You had a phone revolution when you had a data revolution After that you've had a digital revolution and so on which has changed If you look at UPI financial inclusion the kind of thing that have happened in this country on this scale in a democracy of that That's unprecedented. Now if you put that in context with big big big media There are two I think it's a glass half full in a glass half empty in that sense We were talking before the panel and for big media for the digital arms of all big media that transformation There's a lot more to be done To say instead of what's happening in the wider digital sphere on the other hand if you look at the creator economy and that is really flourished Now that somehow there's a that circle is fully not being squared yet between big media And what's happening in the bigger creator economy in the larger digital sphere and the kind of revolutions that are happening there I think big media is you know still has a lot much to catch up on I mean you have a creator economy which has been built Which is very much in sync with the larger kind of digital shift that is happening But big media somehow has you know, we've almost seen this year The shift that happened in the cobit time to digital media That's all for a lot of bigger bigger traditional media has gone back in terms of revenues and so on So there's a circle still as we squared in some ways Anybody else would like to add to that so I think I'll probably add to that I think Leland brought up a very pertinent point that you know one of the big changes that we have seen is the long tail of content producers coming in and That's I think something which big media side away from leveraging. I think that's an opportunity Which we haven't done and I think Sukumar Slightly touched upon it when you give that example of the Qualcomm person, you know being somebody very well-versed with That domain and writing in a fragmented manner though How do we leverage that strength and give it larger distribution? I think a big opportunity for us to tap of course we what we see is a long tail of People producing a lot of frivolous stuff But I think there's a lot of serious stuff also that is In terms of quality even better than what probably we can produce in a newsroom and and there's a very subject-specific thing Then I think something we can leverage Coming to the next question and I will kind of move on to Vijay here Changing the way that news is consumed and how information is being processed by people What are the trends you see and what are the changes that you are seeing in the Indian ecosystem? It's a tremendous. I am In Sukus league in that sense. I'm a very very old person in this business and I've seen huge transition I started off as a newspaper reporter And that itself makes me sound like a dinosaur. I'm sure but what I wanted to say was you know The real big change I think is that if I if I if I look at it from the old days and today And I'm talking about Changes over decades right is that in those days There was it was simpler. It was a simpler time in the sense I knew who or users knew who are your brands who are your trusted incredible brands, right and news consumption was In slots I would read it in the morning or there was a prime time bulletin that I had You know something that I would watch or hear Today if you look at it, there's a deluge of news 24-7 and you know news has expanded from your narrow definition of Politics and current affairs to so much more right and hence I feel you know, it's It's it's there all the time It's relentless and it creates a lot of Different things for us. Just the other day. I was looking at my own newsroom There were 16 live streams in Hindi itself forget other languages at one time And this is over and above the TV channel So can you imagine 17 streams going live on various topics of the day and You know, it's it's crazy if you look at it That means that each and every topic that is important of that day is being squeezed dry Right earlier you would move from topic to topic or you move out But here everything is there and just imagine and I can see it happening Live streams happening from each and every hyper local locality pin code, you know I see a time where there'll be a thousand streams or five thousand streams When I remember the old days of The websites where you know when you personalize your news you would choose four or five topics and that was your Personalization but today there is true choice in news. You can personalize it in any way you want it in any way You can But there are there are flip sides to this deluge of news one is of course, you know Our people prioritizing So Quantity over depth That's something that can be you know talked about I guess and the other thing is You wonder whether if you're getting a news feed from various platforms the credibility of that news And whether because of the algos of big tech you Because of what you've seen or what you what you've read You get sucked into an echo chamber of your thoughts and you never really get the other side So these are things that I see and these are the new consumption patterns Coming to this it's sort of You've been kind of being able to leverage the change in the consumption habits and make a successful Product out of it. What's your view on the changing habits of consumers in the news consumption space? Thank you May I have my answer in Hindi maybe some Beisha, it won't be a sin. There are two or three issues The first thing is that a film came about Sudhir Mishra's 1000 wishes There is a great scene that there are some retired bureaucrats And a woman is singing a lullaby on stage and she's appreciating it Without sounding very populist, I want to add That the hierarchy in the news, the selection of the content, the language And how are the people who present it looking like that? It was like that But now the doors have opened Like in Lagaan After hitting Bhuvan's chakka, the crowd is running on the pitch And she has her own chaos too Everything is fine But the game has grown up, the game has opened And there is one thing that is still going on and should always be there That you have to tell a story Which is relatable Raw or real And relatable, I have said it deliberately It was like looking at the news in English You are talking amazing things, but you are not understanding Our concern, the concern of India is That Sukumaran or his writer Roshan Keshore Who is writing very important things about the Indian economy How to explain to the people who read Dhanik Jagran or Amarujala Or how to explain to the people who watch Lullantop What language should be explained Otherwise, sitting in the Indian International Centre for the next 1000 years And drinking a single malt You can't tip a widow on the state of India Nothing wrong in it Who is sitting here and saying that they like to go to the Indian International Centre Are we doing it deliberately? Are we making it simpler? Relatable Because this understanding has been made by some people The Varanians Hindi, Marathi, Bengali, Tamil audience They like cheap content They are of all kinds They don't understand the Indian Express Which is not true We are continuously producing such content In which they can debate on the songs of Guddi, Guilheri or Niravua And at the same time What is the politics of South China They are also prepared to understand it You come to their land and explain The second thing that has been done is 12 seconds No 12 seconds Thanks to Google and all these platforms Those who have actually These days, they speak of freedom They stand up Someone else has come to the stage What is he going to say? But actually A lot of freedoms came after this technology The monopoly of distribution has ended Very common content creators are also able to reach their content Now they can see it in a cringe They can see it in another circle But a lot of things are being seen And the good thing is that Even the students Now they are able to understand That in the mother tongue In the mother language By saying what they say Their courage will be there And what they actually want to convey To their people So it is very important Nothing wrong in it That the English and all In such powerful languages Those who have knowledge They should worry about this That what they say V the people of India Which is going to be 1.5 billion The announcement of human senses Which is going to happen every 3 or 6 months So reach them This is good for the industry It is good for the technology Because they are enablers And it is good for the country Because our Uncle used to say Son, if there is a job Then there is Babu in the middle of Bhandar But there is something about the journalist There is a respect That when he works People see him with the same respect Like the master of their intercollege He used to see That he has not only earned money He has taught 4 people In today's history He has been there At the same time If there is a question Then we should be very concerned Democratization of content And it is in the language of India And the viewers of India The readers of India Only clickbait How many times will you see That a heroine In the gym, wearing clothes And looking at a dog It is very good But we have to know What happened at the quiet We have to know What is going on Which India has got Your name in a chain It came in 2020 It came in 2022 It is a good event It looks like a global citizen But you have to bring such scholars To the stage Which explains these things And technology helps a lot Durga, would you like to add to that? Very interesting comments, Aura? No, sir I mean Very articulately put I mean And the whole lullant of experience Is very stunning I think just to add To what Vijay I think when we look at it As you know From the Google perspective And we look at You know the world of languages And the language user Who is now coming on to the internet In millions and millions Over the past few years And also the You know That the principles of journalism Don't change I think a lot of what we think about Is the format, the access point Right What can YouTube do differently What can search do differently To surface You know the right content To the right user As per their preferences So more and more You know this key question of How do you make the new India user fall in love with news Is something I think We work very closely With publishers on As well as think about deeply Within Google And that question of You know I mean My son is seven years old He's into sports And he I think his first introduction to news Ends up being Reading the last page of a newspaper Around sports right So I think what are those seminal Insights that you can use To get young people To fall in love with news Is something that we ask ourselves Every day And I think his point on You know formats And The explainer version of news And the rawness of news Married to Sukumar's earlier point Saying the source and the byline Is becoming so important Along with delivery I think is sort of Completely changing We're seeing a very fundamental Change in user behavior Around access and technology And I think that was the limited Point I wanted to add Sanjay Thanks We move on to the next question And I think one of the things That I wish to Or connectivity has done is It has brought news from All corners of the world On to the platforms on an instantaneous way So what are the challenges this Brings to the table So there's the opportunity and there's the challenge So maybe I'll ask Jagdish to kind of Answer this First of all Thank you for calling me I look like a fish out of water Everyone is from media and journalism And I'm glad You said This is to make sure that Simple reader Similarly there are simpler people here Who probably don't understand Deeper thoughts of what's Happening in the world Of economics and politics And I think I'm privileged to be Part of this panel I think the Opportunity really is To a certain extent about Connected with the topic Which is about digital India And I think we need to understand Probably what was digital India's Objective Why is there so much Forget the politics behind it But what is the objective Behind digital India And I think the simpler objective is That it enables the country To develop socially and economically Faster It'll happen Which is that digital probably Will help us get there faster So if the opportunity lies For us to probably Do this digital in an Indian way Then probably the solution gets Solved faster We talked about it I think both Durga and you talked About the language part of it There's technology available And I'm thinking that technology Will be the answer to the problem Is probably the wrong way to look at it How do we use this technology To survive the benefits And the challenges that India has Is probably the biggest opportunity For us So no one else can solve the problem We'll have to solve the problem Similarly like you know Google's trying to do stuff in India There are other tech companies We in Tech Mahendra or any other IT Company are all trying to solve Problems which are relevant to India So that's the big opportunity For us to look at And I know you had also provoked About talking about chat GPT So I'm going to try And bring that together Every You know it's This huge thing that we use In tech called Moore's law And I think every The speed at which Some of these technologies are going to come Are only going to further shorten So we talked about the AI based Search tools and so and so forth Now chat GPT over the last 3-4 months obviously has Picked up the huge amount of Opportunity and the opportunity For chat GPT to impact How media is consumed And how advertising is done Is probably going to be Tremendous and In its various forms because The technology that chat GPT Uses is pretty open Source so it's not going to be Limited to only that organization But you'll probably spend over A couple organizations which are in that business To use the GPT part of the chat GPT Which is really about How do you do predictive And transformative And generate that as Constantly so the only difference For chat GPT simply put is It's starting to learn like the way We human beings learn Which means when we come to here And when I meet them or meet you I'll connect the dots back To the 3 conversations that we had 4 months back The learning part is becoming Lot more stronger so you will see Significant usage of That AI technology But to believe that it speaks The truth is wrong Because it will only learn What you teach it to learn So our responsibility here is To create that opportunity for Creating that database which Is always about what you want And that's the opportunity for us To make sure it's clear for all of India that we were talking about And not have only one point of view Thanks, Chandrasekhar Would you like to add to that, how do you see Technology playing a key role in how The media digital media evolves I'll take it from where he left On chat GPT Yesterday when you mentioned That you want us to touch Up on chat GPT I actually went on chat GPT And I typed in How will chat GPT change Media And it gave me Two different answers every time I typed So that's How nascent that That technology is at this Point in time and just as he mentioned It only learns from what it's Fed Having said that it's a super Intelligent tool and it will give Back the power to the creators It will give back power to the consumer And it pretty much has Potential to disrupt the entire Media, news Value chain if you were to say In fact, going forward You won't be surprised if journalists Look up on what topics to write on Because it can tell you What is the reader reading It can tell you what is Being anticipated as a topic Which is relevant and then It will help you write that Creative, it will help you Distributed to the right audience And it will from an audience Perspective or a reader's perspective It will help them validate whether it's accurate or not So there's an entire value chain Which it can disrupt And hence the power of it Can't be underestimated It can change a lot of things It can change the way search works It can change the way content is created It can change the way content is edited Things that it can change But today it takes a lot of processing power There is a lot of Infrastructure, ecosystem That needs to mature to that extent That it can be used In a day-to-day application So that's my take On some of these emerging technologies These are all up for grabs And they all have a great potential But the real test of them Will be Only when we see a Clear use case In the near future I saw Durga pick up her mic I think she has a point to make Sanjay, I'm just going to add There are three ways Speaking of use cases I think that We envisage working with the news industry I think one is just very core You have hundreds of years Of archives with A lot of the Media companies that are present in this room How can you simply take That offline Or physical archive And make it digital There's a lot of OCR technology Where we feel From a chat, GPT perspective If all of that can be processed You can train a model What is that approach of Q&A That can emerge Number two, what we are looking at Is translation at scale I think the language universe Can I run a Malayalam Or a Tamil New Southlet or Hindi Can I perhaps experiment By translating it into a few more languages Because it is untrue That a person in the south Is disinterested in the north Or vice versa There are lots of stereotypes That can be broken The third is very fundamental Data work HD, India today Data, looked at personalisation So I would say these three And many sub-use cases I think will become very core AI work in the next couple of years That we are very excited to be a part of I can't take any more because The application of that Is also going to be In the start-up ecosystem What the start-up ecosystem does With that technology is yet to be seen And that possibility The art of possibility There is actually limitless So I'm quite excited to see How that all shapes up over the next few years The other thing is When we look at chargeGPT We are only thinking about disruption In the ways content is created I think one of the fundamental disruptions That it can bring about is The way you access Technology and code Right Currently there is that barrier Where if you want to set up a huge process To build that tech ChargeGPT makes code very Very accessible and that's Something that is going to break down A lot of entry barriers Absolutely and just one final Comment I think The fear that we have About people being Told and taught What others want them to know With advancement of technology It's not going to go away It's only going to become more and more Difficult for us to make sure That are we being fair Are we being absolutely equitable in it And that's the responsibility Of folks from The media and journalist world to leverage technology Appropriately Otherwise AI will only Learn from what banks we are going to create And those banks Of data and information Can be easily created to tell People what you want them to know And that's the biggest risk that we learn That technology becomes smarter So just to Add to Chandrasekhar's point The grouse of Credibility If earlier newsrooms and A lot of newsrooms would just follow Google Trends and write stories on Google Trends Now with ChargeGPT If you can even get the stories written Through this Then what happens to credibility and journalism And how do you address That becomes a big point Of journalism One last final point Quick one See Data is a very good thing Everyone should be data driven The governments should be more The institutions should be And the data should be collected These are all good things But The consuming pattern Has come from YRF to TVF Now the government Of Neelam Desh In films like Dilthopagal Mirzapur, Panchayat and Gulak Means That if everything Can be found through data Then the very important Human touch Doesn't remain the same With coding That this is the like pattern Of this viewer He saw this on Tik Tok He bought this He consumed this According to his algos He should keep feeding it Be a little unpredictable Because chat GPT Will not do anything He is learning from us But in the universe In that universe Which neuron cup Kick the idea You run 70, 20, 50 feeds But at the end of the day Or any other agency The feed you are giving You are showing your share The question We have to ask After seeing it Does he remember That he saw it on which platform And saw it with which commentary I am repeating this Human touch You told the story Very confidently With the help of technology But at the end of the day You have seen it since childhood I ask someone randomly Ask Durga When you went to school Do you remember every day You will not remember every day But that day The day Dr. Chauhan's daughter was born And she wore a frock instead of a uniform And she gave it Two times extra Because there is a story in it Love, affection, hatred There must have been a very good match With a very good drop shot At the end of the day we remember stories We have made those stories So data can help us Everything like chat, gpt Can help us But how deep we are diving And how much, especially in digital Original content That if everyone puts one bottle of milk Then the lake will fill In the morning it was water On the internet There is an event Write a story on it So a person went on the internet To write a story on the internet And wrote something on the internet Someone did not bother To come here See from the front What is being said And what is being observed And then produce the original So this is a big concern of digital You read books Bring the students And you have to do this in the file So that the packaging is correct Interesting I think I should have kept the creativity out For the managing the time So we now have five minutes left And I will quickly take two questions And I think we will keep it brief So first one Sauram you have covered this slightly In your first answer And this is about the role of digital media In enabling digital literacy So you have already touched about some aspects of this Maybe you want to add a couple of points There is a great time A great English singer and singer Had said that we are living in interesting times There are so many ways To learn old things And to combine new things You are also from Indian Express Isn't it? It is fun that Jayant Chaudhary went with RLD And went on the GT road With all the Ganna farmers And in the same Indian Express An old archive is printed on the edit page It is written That when Jayant Chaudhary was born In America His father was in IIT He had a party In his house in Delhi And for the first time Indira Ji came And it was decided that Mr. Murari's government will go And Indian Express had also written That in that party Samosa and Gulab Jamun Had gone to Parose Now you will say in the larger scheme of things How does it matter Even Jalebi went to Parose But until I say The final things The final things Shahi Tokhla eats everything But those who make Lucknow Have something else The final things And it is important for that That the democratization of knowledge Is there And it has one step language One step technology But the most important step Without sounding preachy Even though I am very young Intent At the end of the day You want to be a brand Which most people have seen Got the most impressions Got the most TRP, clicks Stay in Google Analytics Or you want to be the brand Which people believed Loved and trusted It is the tagline of your newspaper That the important people We also study Because it is a trust But all these Especially the digital From the language platform They will have to aspire That credibility and love That people feel that they have seen Because of the world It is easy for a person This is Durga This is Facebook If you are ABP Then it will be critical You have to be predictable Keep a little open And what is in your Head The most important thing to keep it Is the sun Our elders saw fire for the first time They saw water So they became curious So you have to be an Antu cutlet And you have to be a curious cat So everybody wants to add one quick point I just wanted to say that What Saarab can We would struggle like fear To put out an Adam Saarab you can speak in Hindi And everybody is teaching If I speak in Bengali Then nobody will understand I disagree The problem is If you speak in Bengali And those who don't know Can be told in Hindi or English If someone speaks in Tamil Or in Nepalese The problem is Last one So one of the things That we have been hearing since morning About monetization And one of the challenges is We are mostly in an ad supported model today So do you think The future of digital media lies in an Ad supported model Or do you think that There is absolute necessity for Media to diversify its image streams Nalik do you want to start with that So I think What Saarab was saying earlier That what brand do you want to be Times of India versus Indian express model From a media point of view I think in the near future Both will coexist I don't think you can have either or And Sukumar was saying this in the morning That everybody is gaga about subscription Then you have to go to subscriptions But I think it's very easy to be Seduced by The miasma of subscriptions But on scale There are a few examples around the world For news that have actually done it On a massive scale I think where it really matters Is if you think about Kevin Kelly's argument About the thousand true fans That kind of argument For today The one who is your valuable subscriber If you are an enthusiast About a car You can make significant more money Than for a regular thing The kind of thing that a mainstream You can get a really valuable audience With that But I think for a big media That doesn't change the fact That you are in the business of aggregating Audiences Facebook has changed its algorithm The audience has disappeared Five years ago Facebook Gave people so much attention Invested in all the newsrooms The entire team was sacked Same thing is going to happen with Google So I think this idea of a thousand Is a great idea But on scale you are always going to see Both Prasad you want to add Anybody else Prasad It has to be hybrid modern One of the coding people Is to take care That if in Buxer Balia Or in Orangabad There is a viewer From the Indian Times Or Indian Express You have put a gate of money Open it It should be like a good student That this child wants to study So don't enter the door That you don't have fees You will see it in the alcove That he is an Antho reader He is watching a lot of content So we don't do this Just because of the premium content That there is no money in his pocket Because then the last question is Intent And you have to feel good Sir I think scale is the only issue I mean that is the elephant in the room At scale we will all struggle As publishers to make subscription work We have actually struggled so much Will it work in another Two, three, four, five years I don't know, I don't think That there is enough proof of concept Out there to say that it will work at scale So I will just summarize this one And this is the last question I started looking at subscriptions Way back in 1999 We launched ET and I was told Let's look at a subscription model And I then looked at WSJ What they are doing And I came back, we are not ready for it And I kept tracking Because every two years the question would come up Take ET behind a subscription wall And I was in times for 24 years So this happened And what I realized was WSJ journey which started in 1999 It was very stressful Today we see 2 million and 3 million Subscription is a viable model It should happen on scale But let's not forget that Even in the US which is a world market Where people are used to paying for content A decent price and value It took them almost two decades To hit a million mark So I think the market is there It's viable, scale will come It will take time, courage and conviction And creating value for the users So with that I think I would like to thank everyone I think we've shot up our time by a little bit But still we'll be within the time Thank you, thanks a lot