News Broadcasting
NatGeo, IIT-D join hands for ‘Nokia Innovation’
NEW DELHI: First came a rather quaint announcement on a tie-up with the Indian Institute of Technology-Delhi (IIT-D) to set Indian minds thinking on innovations. Then came a broad swipe at competition like Discovery that NatGeo as a channel “is for thinking audience.”
Announcing a national search for the innovator of the year and young innovator of the year, National Geographic Channel today said that it has tied up with IIT-D to drive a nation-wide campaign focused on recognising Indians who have turned their creative genius into beneficial technology within India.
“Nokia Innovation – the series, will shed light on the reality behind breakthrough technologies in a manner that viewers will instantly relate to,” National Geographic, India senior vice-president, content and communications Dilshad Master told a press briefing here today.
Later, responding to a query on NGC’s performance in India vis-?-vis competition, Master mockingly feigned ignorance about Discovery and then declared, “We are a channel for thinking audience.”
Of course, she went on to add that NGC was doing well in India and certain programming, like those on science and technology and people and places, are the favourite genres for the Indian viewers.
Master may not be much off the mark as the company’s head of ad sales Nikhil Mirchandani points out that just two months into a new financial year (NGC follows a June-July fiscal) and Nat Geo has attracted about 12 new advertisers, including some big spenders like IBM, Kerela Tourism, Hyundai, Hero Honda, Diamond Trading and Max New York Life Insurance. Last year there were a total of 85 advertisers on the channel.
“Point to be noted is that these advertisers were not with us in the previous financial year and some like the financial services sector has started looking at the channel as a viable avenue,” Mirchandani explains.
Concurring with the overall thrust of Master and Mirchandani, NGC South Asia MD Zubin Gandevia admits that Innovation is a big ticket programming initiative like Mission Mars and others, which all have gone a long way in “establishing the brand National Geographic in India.”
“We expect a 40-50 per cent jump in the ratings with the start of the Innovation series and hope to retain some of them (through other programming initiatives),” Gandevia says.
The campaign is inspired by one of National Geographic Channel’s biggest programming initiatives for 2004 – the series Nokia Innovation, will air on the Channel from October 3, every Sunday at 10 pm.
Each of the eight episodes will go beyond the “wow” of technology- featuring the people who are most affected by these advances as well as the heavy drama and pressurised politics that go on behind the scenes. Not to mention, the attempt will be to give some Indian colour to each episode to keep the connection with the Indian viewers intact.
Pointing out that Nokia, as a presenting sponsor for the Innovation series is a perfect brand fit – the telecom company is known for innovations in its products – Gandevia adds that a 360 degree communication strategy has been planned for this new series, including outdoors, print, TV channels, direct marketing to corporates and individuals and “some trick things, which cannot be revealed at this moment.”
WHAT’S THE INNOVATOR AWARDS?
The innovator of the year and the young innovator of the year awards are designed to identify and recognise outstanding innovators and concepts that have the potential to improve the way of life of Indians and encourage, enhance and cultivate the spirit of enterprise.
According to Gandevia, “Our aim is to honour the profound impact that individual ingenuity can have on society and recognise these Indians as true heroes of our country.”
The innovator of the year and the young innovator of the year awards is part of a unique programme that originates from the understanding that recognition and reward is one of the most effective ways to accelerate scientific breakthrough, technological applications and inculcate and foster the spirit of enterprise.
A tie-up with the Foundation for Innovation and Technology Transfer (FITT) and IIT Delhi is a move by NGC to associate with an organisation whose charter and objectives echo this very same sentiment.
“The principal objective of FITT is to promote interaction between the academia and the industry to create trust and collaboration,” says FITT managing director and CEO Dr A K Sengupta.
The contest will be open to innovators from any area of science and technology and entries will be divided into 11 categories which would include energy management and conservation, environmental sciences, population and disease control, infrastructure and communication, software
technologies, transportation, agriculture, urban living and rural infrastructure, entertainment and recreation, information technology and life sciences.
NGC will air promotional campaigns as a call for entries across the country. All entries will be received in a prescribed format for a period of three weeks. The entries will then be short listed to five by a body of independent judges based on criteria that will include the level of creativity, quality of execution and potential impact.
These chosen five will be invited to an on-ground symposium on 13 November where a distinguished jury panel will judge and select ‘The Innovator of the Year’. The winner will receive an award of Rs 1,000,000 to help make the
innovation a commercial reality.
The young innovator contest will involve a nation-wide school contest with an award of Rs 200,000, which will be held in a trust fund until the child turns 18.
“The award of Rs 1,000,000 will serve as an incubation fund to help the innovator through the critical stages of start up and development,” said Gandevia.
News Broadcasting
Newsrooms rethink AI, trust and revenue models
Editors and tech leaders debate tools, deepfakes and viability.
MUMBAI: If yesterday’s newsroom ran on caffeine and chaos, tomorrow’s may well run on code but with a human still holding the pen. At the 22nd edition of the Video Broadcast and Broadband Tech Summit hosted by IndianTelevision.com, some of the sharpest minds in Indian media gathered to examine how artificial intelligence, automation and shifting audience behaviour are reshaping journalism. The session, titled The Newsroom of Tomorrow Tools, Trust, and Business Viability In Focus, did not descend into techno-utopian hype. Instead, it wrestled with a more uncomfortable question: how do you stay relevant, credible and profitable when the audience is changing faster than the headline cycle?
The panel featured Govindraj Ethiraj, Editor of The Core, Dr Nilesh Khare, COO of Sakal Media Group; Prakaran Tiwari, Chief Executive Producer at NDTV Profit; Manoj Padmanabhan, Head of Business Media and Entertainment at AWS; Neeraj Mishra, Key Account Manager at Vizrt and session chair; and Mayuresh Konnur, Bilingual Correspondent at Collective Newsroom, publisher for BBC in India.
Govindraj Ethiraj set the tone with a frank assessment. “The reason people do not consume as much news through us is because they are consuming news through other sources they trust more,” he said. In a fragmented ecosystem flooded with content, trust has become the real differentiator.
Yet AI is undeniably transforming workflows. Ethiraj admitted he now uses AI tools to proofread his own articles. “Sometimes it is scary how much it picks, but it helps,” he said. What once required layers of sub-editing can now be assisted by machines trained to flag errors, inconsistencies and structural weaknesses.
He pointed to how newsroom roles have evolved. The desk editor, widely advertised over the last 15 years, barely existed in its current form before the internet boom. As digital publishing accelerated, tasks such as curating listicles, ranking stories and optimising headlines became specialised functions. Now, many of those responsibilities can be performed or at least supported by AI systems. The disruption is not hypothetical; it is operational.
Dr Nilesh Khare approached the issue from both a business and technological standpoint. Sakal Media Group is developing its own large language model, built on 60 years of text and photo archives. The goal is independence. “We won’t need to depend on other platforms to develop ours,” he said, underscoring the strategic value of proprietary data.
For Khare, AI represents opportunity as much as anxiety. It can help expand content across geographies and languages, particularly in bridging North and South Indian markets. It can streamline production and reduce costs. He did not shy away from the implications. “As a journalist I feel bad but as a content producer I feel good that we will require less manpower,” he said, articulating a tension many in the room recognised but few openly admit.
He also highlighted how audience behaviour is evolving. Today, a retail investor can follow a stock using Gemini or GPT instead of toggling between multiple news channels. News is no longer consumed linearly; it is queried, personalised and synthesised. The newsroom must therefore produce content that survives not just on screens but within AI-generated summaries.
Prakaran Tiwari offered a more philosophical reflection. “AI has developed itself and adapted on the basis of how news is consumed. It’s all about giving a perspective,” he said. In his view, the competitive edge will not lie in speed alone but in interpretation. Facts are increasingly commoditised; context is not.
He also suggested that formats are fluid. While short-form video dominates social feeds, long-form audio is resurging. Govindraj Ethiraj noted that in the United States the 2024 election was described as the “podcast election”, reflecting how audiences are investing time in deeper, long-form discussions. The newsroom of tomorrow must cater to both scrolling and sustained listening.
Manoj Padmanabhan of AWS reframed the debate. Technology, he argued, is not an existential threat but an amplifier. “The power is given to the human journalist with all this technology in their hand, with it acting as a support or assistant to deliver the correct and relevant news to the people,” he said.
The traditional divide between a “normal” newsroom and a “digital” newsroom is fading. “It will not be two newsrooms,” he said. “It will be one newsroom.” In that integrated environment, the storyteller remains central. AI may assist with research, editing and distribution, but editorial judgement remains human.
Neeraj Mishra of Vizrt echoed the assistive narrative. India, he said, is a market of organised chaos, where news broadcasters are pushing ever-increasing volumes of content. AI will help manage scale. It is not here to replace people but to assist them.
Production barriers are already collapsing. “You don’t need a green screen to produce content now,” Mishra observed, hinting at virtual production tools and real-time rendering technologies. And this, he said, is only the beginning. In a cost-conscious market like India, AI adoption in both B to B and B to C segments is likely to rise sharply. The skills are available, he argued, the real question is whether organisations are willing to invest.
If opportunity was one half of the conversation, risk was the other. Mayuresh Konnur warned that fake news is now being peddled with alarming ease using AI tools. Deepfakes, synthetic audio and fabricated visuals can damage credibility overnight. Several journalists, he said, have already faced instances where manipulated content was circulated in their name.
“Eventually it becomes a question of how authentic you are in the market,” Konnur noted. In a crowded information economy, credibility is the ultimate moat. Regulations and clear guidelines, he argued, are necessary to curb misuse without stifling innovation.
Mishra added a note of caution against overuse. “AI should not be everywhere. It has to be used optimally,” he said. The value lies not in blanket automation but in strategic integration.
One of the most resonant metaphors came from Padmanabhan. AI, he suggested, is like a brush in a human hand. Powerful, versatile, transformative but inert without the artist. It cannot survive without the human touch.
Konnur distilled the session’s core takeaway, AI is inevitable, but the art of storytelling will never disappear.
In a media landscape defined by speed, shrinking attention spans and intense competition, the newsroom of tomorrow is not simply a technological upgrade. It is a recalibration. Between efficiency and ethics. Between automation and authenticity. Between reducing manpower and retaining meaning.
The algorithms may write cleaner copy and generate sharper graphics. They may even predict what audiences want before audiences know it themselves. But the enduring task remains unchanged to tell stories that inform, interrogate and inspire.
And for that, the human newsroom is still very much open for business.
