The Hindu's former Editor & MD G Kasturi passes away!

G. Kasturi, former Editor of The Hindu and former Managing Director of Kasturi & Sons Limited, died at his residence in Chennai at 2 a.m. on Friday after suffering  congestive heart failure. He was 87.

 

He lived to see the 134th anniversary of the founding of The Hindu on September 20, 2012, and passed away a couple of hours into September 21.

 

Kasturi took an M.A. in Economics from Presidency College in Madras. He joined The Hindu in 1944 at the age of 20, and got trained in all aspects of newspaper production and publication. He came under the tutelage of his uncle, the late Kasturi Srinivasan. He later became Joint Editor, and took over as Editor in 1965. He retired in 1991, but maintained an active interest in the affairs of the newspaper, especially on the technical side.

 

Described as a "visionary and moderniser," he presided over a phase of rapid technological transformation at The Hindu. He left his stamp on multiple aspects of editorial upgradation.

 

 

He travelled across the world to familiarise himself with aspects of the printing industry and chose equipment, systems and processes best suited to the newspaper. He introduced a full page fascimile transmission system for printing for the first time in India in 1969. He brought in computer-aided photocomposing in 1980 to The Hindu, the first mainline newspaper in India to do so. He adopted the use of satellite transponders for facsimile transmission of pages when The Hindu launched its Delhi edition in 1986.

 

Kasturi was associated with leading industry bodies such as the Press Trust of India (PTI) and the Indian Newspapers Society (INS). He was Chairman of Samachar, when the news agencies came under one umbrella.

 

The second son of the late K. Gopalan, who was publisher of The Hindu, Kasturi is survived by his wife Kamala, two sons - K. Balaji, former Managing Director of Kasturi & Sons Ltd, and K. Venugopal, Director and former Joint Editor of The Hindu and Business Line, and a daughter, Lakshmi Srinath. All three are Directors of Kasturi and Sons Ltd. He has five granddaughters and two great grandchildren.