The Times Group

The Bombay Times and Journal of Commerce was first published on 03 November 1838 as a predecessor to what would become The Times of India.[7][8][9] While starting as a biweekly paper, it was converted to a daily in 1850. In 1859 the paper was merged with two other papers into the Bombay Times and Standard under editor Robert Knight.[9][10] Two years later, in 1861, the paper got a more national scope with the title The Times of India. Subsequently the paper 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. (BCCL).[9][10] At the time, some 800 people were employed by the paper.

The company, by that time consolidated in the Times of India Group, was taken over from its British owners in 1946 by industrialist Ramkrishna Dalmia.[11][12]

Ramkrishna Dalmia (7 April 1893 – 26 September 1978) was a pioneer industrialist and founder of the Dalmia-Jain group or Dalmia Group and The Times Group. The name is variously written as Ram Krishan Dalmia and Ram Kishan Dalmia. In 1947, Dalmia engineered the acquisition of the media giant Bennett, Coleman by transferring monies from a bank and an insurance company of which he was the Chairman. In 1955, this came to the attention of the socialist parliamentarian Feroze Gandhi who was part of the ruling Congress party headed by his estranged father-in-law Jawaharlal Nehru. In December 1955, he raised the matter in the Parliament, documenting extensively the various fund transfers and intermediaries through which the acquisition had been financed. The case was investigated by the Vivian Bose Commission of Inquiry.

In the court case that followed, where he was represented by the leading British attorney Sir Dingle Mackintosh Foot, he was sentenced to two years in Tihar Jail. 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 running of Bennett, Coleman & Co. Ltd. rebuffed his efforts to resume command of the company.[13]

During his time in prison the company was run by his son-in-law Sahu Shanti Prasad Jain. Jain would buy the company a few years later and the company would be primarily run by his family in the years after.[12][14] The company expanded its presence in the Indian media sphere by founding different papers and local editions of The Times of India.[10]

The Times of India 1988 stamp of India

The Times of India press published a number of influential English (e.g. Illustrated Weekly of India 1880-1993) and Hindi magazines (e.g. Dharmyug 1949-1997, Sarika, Dinaman 1965-1990s, Parag 1958-1990s), edited by distinguished authors including Khushwant Singh, Dharmveer Bharti, Agyeya and Sarveshwar Dayal Saxena. However, the organisation faced financial difficulties, and most of them were closed down during the 1990s.

The sons of Sahu Ashok Jain, Sahu Samir Jain and Vineet Jain are credited with reviving the financial success of the group with newer and more profitable ventures.[15][16]

• Publications of The Times Group

[24]

• Auletta, Ken (8 October 2012). "Citizens Jain – Why India's newspaper industry is thriving". The New Yorker. Retrieved 30 July 2018.
• Thakurta, Paranjoy Guha (11 November 2012). "The Times, the Jains, and BCCL". The Hoot. Retrieved 30 July 2018.
• "Gigantic List of Companies Owned by The TIMES Group". MelodyFuse. 17 September 2019. Retrieved 23 September 2019.

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• Official website