The Times of India (TOI) is an Indian English-language daily newspaper owned 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] according to Audit Bureau of Circulations (India).[1][6] It is the oldest English-
language newspaper in India still in circulation, albeit under different names since its first edition
published in 1838.[7] It is also the second-oldest Indian newspaper still in circulation after the Bombay
Samachar.
Near the beginning of the 20th century, Lord Curzon, the Viceroy of India, called The Times of
India "the leading paper in Asia".[8][9] In 1991, the BBC ranked The Times of India among the world's
six best newspapers.[10][11]
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.[12]

Contents

 1History
o 1.1Beginnings
o 1.2Bennett and Coleman ownership
o 1.3Dalmiya 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
 5Notable employees
 6References
 7Further reading
 8External links

History[edit]
Times of India Buildings, ca. 1898

Beginnings[edit]
The Times of India issued its first edition on 3 November 1838 as The Bombay Times and Journal
of Commerce.[13][14] The paper published Wednesdays and Saturdays under the direction of
Raobahadur Narayan Dinanath Velkar, a Maharashtrian Reformist, and contained news from Britain
and the world, as well as the Indian Subcontinent. J.E. Brennan was its first editor.[15][16] 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.[17][18] 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.

Dalmiya ownership[edit]
Sir Stanley Reed edited The Times of India from 1907 until 1924 and received correspondence from
the 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. He christened Jaipur as "the
Pink City of India".
Bennett Coleman & Co. Ltd was sold to sugar magnate Ramkrishna Dalmia of the then-famous
industrial family, the Dalmiyas, for Rs 20 million in 1946, as India was becoming independent and
the British owners were leaving.[19] 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]
But for 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.[20] 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, Justice directed the Government to assume control of the newspaper which
resulted in replacing half of the directors and appointing a Bombay (now Mumbai) High Court judge
as the Chairman.[21]

Under the Government of India[edit]

The Times of India on a 1988 stamp

The Times of India on a 2013 stamp

Following the Vivian Bose Commission report indicating serious wrongdoings of the Dalmia–Jain
group, on 28 August 1969, the Bombay High Court, under Justice J. L. Nain, passed an interim order
to disband the existing board of Bennett Coleman and to constitute a new board under the
Government. The bench ruled that "Under these circumstances, the best thing would be to pass
such orders on the assumption that the allegations made by the petitioners that the affairs of the
company were being conducted in a manner prejudicial to public interest and to the interests of the
Company are correct".[22] Following that order, Shanti Prasad Jain ceased to be a director and the
company ran with new directors on board, appointed by the Government of India, with the exception
of a lone stenographer of the Jains. Curiously, the court appointed D K Kunte as Chairman of the
Board. Kunte had no prior business experience and was also an opposition member of the Lok
Sabha.

Back to the Jain family[edit]

In 1976, during the Emergency in India, the Government transferred ownership of the newspaper
back to Ashok Kumar Jain (Sahu Shanti Prasad Jain's son, Ramkrishna Dalmia's grandson and the
father of Samir Jain and Vineet Jain).[23] The Jains too often landed themselves in various money
laundering scams and Ashok Kumar Jain had to flee the country when the Enforcement
Directorate pursued his case strongly in 1998 for alleged violations of illegal transfer of funds (to the
tune of US$1.25 million) to an overseas account in Switzerland.[24][25][26][27]

During the Emergency[edit]

On 26 June 1975, the day after India declared a state of emergency, the Bombay edition of The
Times of India carried an entry in its obituary column that read "D.E.M. O'Cracy, beloved husband of
T.Ruth, father of L.I.Bertie, brother of Faith, Hope and Justice expired on 25 June".[28] The move was
a critique of Prime Minister Indira Gandhi's 21-month state of emergency, which is now widely known
as "the Emergency" and seen by many as a roundly authoritarian era of Indian government.[2