MAM
Digital may kill journalism before print, warns Shekhar Gupta at CII Summit ’25
MUMBAI: “Print will die someday, but not this Friday,” Gupta quipped. This is how veteran journalist and founder of The Print Shekhar Gupta opened his sharp, historically grounded critique of the media industry’s evolution at the CII Big Picture Summit 2025, arguing that while the long-predicted death of print remains distant, the death of journalism itself may be dangerously near.
He dismissed the question “Is digital the future?” as two decades out of date, recalling the World Editors Forum in Zurich in June 1999, when global publishers spent three days forecasting print’s imminent demise. “If predictions were right, there should be no New York Times, no The Indian Express, no The Hindu today,” he said. “Yet print remains the only consistently profitable news model in India.”
Gupta argued that digital disruption hasn’t destroyed print, it has created something far more insidious: the erosion of journalistic nuance and trust.
He flagged three structural threats:
. Nuance has vanished. Digital incentives reward outrage, binaries and instant reactions. “News is not a football match. It has nuance. That nuance is gone.”
. Algorithms now curate reality: once readers tilt toward one ideology online, algorithms feed them only reinforcing content, turning journalism into echo chambers. “You end up preaching to the converted.”
. The rise of a ‘mutant species’: news curators. Gupta described digital newsrooms increasingly staffed by young “content writers” on short-term contracts, hired to repackage social media into 200-word posts. “This has sucked the soul out of journalism.” Many job applications he receives are AI-generated – some incomplete, with target fields left blank.
Gupta described digital newsrooms increasingly staffed by young underpaid “content writers” on short-term contracts, hired to repackage social media into 200-word posts. “This has sucked the soul out of journalism.” Many job applications he receives are AI-generated, some incomplete.
Despite decades of decline forecasts, India’s print sector is “prospering”, adding journalists, pages and advertising. Government ads, IPO notices and statutory disclosures continue to anchor revenue. Print remains a trusted format with deep regional penetration.
“Change comes through messy negotiation, not linear disruption,” Gupta said.
Gupta also touched upon the story behind The Print’s origin.
At Sharad Pawar’s 75th birthday event in Delhi, he read an online column speculating that Pawar might become India’s next President simply because major leaders attended the celebration. “I wondered: how could a serious editor write this?”
Former minister of state for external affairs MJ Akbar, sitting beside him, responded, “That’s the problem when serious people go online. They lower the entry barriers.”
The moment crystallised The Print’s philosophy: bring the diligence, verification and patience of old-school print journalism to digital.
“We did not publish rumours during Kargil without confirmation,” Gupta said. “Those values — slowness, verification, responsibility – are what we wanted to carry forward.”
That’s how The Print got its name: a digital platform built on print values.
The Print plans to expand into business, finance, technology and sports, but with the same slow, rigorous ethos. “Digital lowered entry barriers for organisations like ours,” Gupta said. “It cut two zeros out of investment, people and generations required. Why should I fight that? We must ride it, without sacrificing quality.”
He noted that press freedom is not explicitly guaranteed in the Constitution; instead, it survives through a social contract shaped after the Emergency imposed by late and then prime minister Indira Gandhi. “That social contract,” Gupta argued, “still protects credible journalism today.”
During the 1975–1977 Emergency, press freedom was severely curtailed. The government enforced pre-censorship orders, compelled newspapers to obtain official approval before printing political content, and used administrative pressure to silence dissenting outlets. Several journalists were detained, and independent media was effectively throttled through a mix of legal restrictions, intimidation and direct state control.
Gupta repeatedly emphasised that technology is easy to acquire, but trust takes years to build. “India does not need more news. It needs more trust. And trust is earned with conventions, discipline and time.”
“The challenge,” he concluded, “is to embrace what must change – and insist on what must not.”
Brands
Trump announces $300bn Texas oil refinery with Reliance, calls it the biggest in US history
First new US refinery in 50 years planned at Brownsville port with Reliance
WASHINGTON: The United States may soon see the first brand-new oil refinery built on its soil in half a century.
Donald Trump announced a proposed $300 billion refinery project in Texas, calling it a landmark moment for American energy production and jobs.
Posting on Truth Social on 10 March, Trump said the facility would be built at the Port of Brownsville and developed by a company called America First Refining, with major investment from India’s Reliance Industries.
The announcement frames the project as a centrepiece of the administration’s push for “energy dominance”, with Trump claiming it would deliver thousands of jobs and billions of dollars in economic activity to South Texas.
If realised, the plant would mark the first all-new major refinery constructed in the United States since the 1970s. In recent decades, oil companies have largely chosen to expand existing facilities rather than build new ones, citing high costs, regulatory hurdles and environmental scrutiny.
Trump described the proposed investment as the “biggest in US history”, positioning it as proof that policy changes such as streamlined permits and lower taxes are drawing large-scale energy investments back into the country.
The refinery is planned for the Port of Brownsville, a strategic Gulf Coast location that provides easy access to shipping routes and export markets.
A key partner in the project is Reliance Industries, controlled by billionaire industrialist Mukesh Ambani. The company already runs the world’s largest refining complex in Jamnagar, India, making it one of the most experienced operators in large-scale petroleum processing.
The Texas venture would mark a significant step for the group into America’s domestic refining sector, potentially strengthening industrial ties between the US and India.
The proposed refinery is being promoted as a next-generation facility capable of processing American shale oil while maintaining high environmental standards. Trump said it would be “the cleanest refinery in the world”, although the specific technologies behind that claim have not yet been detailed.
Industry observers also note that the $300 billion figure is unusually large for a refinery project, and analysts are waiting for more clarity on whether the number reflects total construction costs, long-term infrastructure investment, or broader economic impact estimates.
As of 11 March, Reliance Industries had not publicly confirmed the investment size or the structure of its involvement.
For now, the announcement has sparked equal parts excitement and curiosity in energy markets. If the plan moves from promise to pouring concrete, the refinery could reshape the Gulf Coast energy landscape, and reopen a chapter in American refining that has been quiet for nearly fifty years.
