Patrika Group launches its national daily edition from Bastar, Chhattisgarh

Even after 65 years of India’s independence, the tribal region of Bastar in Chhattisgarh still has ‘no voice’ in the media. The region, sometimes referred as ‘India’s Outland’ has remained marginalized in every sense - ignored and abandoned. It seems that the distance has literally and figuratively remained too far to cover till now.

For Patrika, the journey from Raipur, the capital of Chhattisgarh, to faraway Bastar region seemed totally fearless and natural. Backed by the legacy of more than five decades of courageous, fearless journalism and recounts of people welfare Patrika Group entered the faraway Bastar region, with its 33rd edition from Jagdalpur, the headquarters of Bastar district and entire Bastar division. Bastar region can go vocal now.

The one-point agenda is to give ‘voice’ to the region, connect it to the mainstream India, explore the unexplored reserves for larger benefit of society, and encourage potential dialogues - so that their issues could be heard and acted upon in right spirit.

This current edition launched on 25th June, 2013, with the print run of 25000 copies, is the first of its kind for any national Hindi daily to start from Bastar region, Jagdalpur specifically. This is 33rd edition of Patrika Group all India & 4th edition from Chhattisgarh. The Jagdalpur Edition covers seven districts in the Bastar region namely, Kanker, Kondagaon, Bastar/Jagdalpur, Narayanpur, Bijapur, Dantewada and Sukuma.

From Raipur, it’s hundreds of kms of travel to these far and scattered districts of Bastar, the farthest being Bijapur (450 kms) and other surrounding regions under the district that takes more than 24 hrs to reach, which could be one of the reasons for absence of mass media in the area.

The entire Bastar region has huge potential in terms of natural resources and its proximity to the adjoining states viz. Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh and Bihar.

There are many ways to describe Bastar region: on one hand - waterfalls, lush green mountains, deep valleys, dense forests, magnificent monuments, rich natural resources, tribes, exuberant festivity, mines; and on other hand- unrest and strife.

It’s obvious that people know less about this region where development never happened. Despite occupying huge chunk of India’s land area, the region gets to pronounce its existence on map only when huge massacres make headlines globally, as happened in the recent Maoists attack on politicians and Dantewada incident in 2010 when a forest battle killed 76 paramilitary police.

Patrika began its operations in Chhattisgarh from Raipur, the state capital, on September 19, 2010 and has been emerging as fastest growing newspaper with 4 editions at present in Chhattisgarh including Jagdalpur Edition. It has already earned huge credibility in Raipur, Bilaspur, Bhilai, Raigarh, Korba, Rajanand and other regions of Chhattisgarh and is number 1 in Raipur (as per ABC Jul-Dec 2012). In less than three years, it has gained trust of the readers and advertisers and has been gaining foothold since then, voicing peoples’ concerns.

In a short period, Patrika has established itself firmly in Madhya Pradesh & Chhattisgarh. As per ABC (July-Dec 2012), Patrika is the No.1 newspaper in Madhya Pradesh and also stands as no. 1 in Indore & Bhopal, the major cities of Madhya Pradesh.

It’s worth mentioning here that Patrika Group has emerged as India’s 2nd largest Hindi Daily newspaper group as per ABC July-Dec 2012. With the strength of 33 editions in 8 states PAN India and high credibility earned out of public service journalism, Patrika will become a strong bridge between Gondi speaking tribals and rest of the world. With the promise of serving its readers through fearless and fair journalism, Patrika will also become a catalyst in mainstreaming this resource rich region by facilitating the process of development.

“Certainly, the coming times will see live reportage and development concerns from this unchartered region and build public that could be the harbinger of what good lies ahead. As for the advertisers, it’s a maiden opportunity, as the brand itself could become the category representation, the market being unexplored and the opportunity being rare & huge to ride on the penetration.” – said Saurabh Bhandari, National Head, Corporate, Patrika Group.

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