FOR decades, the Indian press earned a reputation as one of the most vibrant, chaotic and fiercely independent media environments in the developing world. From uncovering high-level political scandals to holding successive governments accountable, Indian journalism functioned as a noisy but vital pillar of the world’s largest democracy. Today, that pillar is severely fractured. What remains of the mainstream media is increasingly described as “Godi media”. A captured apparatus where journalistic scrutiny has been replaced by uncritically echoing state narratives and shielding corporate interests.

The transformation of Indian journalism from a public watchdog into a corporate-political mouthpiece is not an accidental shift; it is the direct outcome of an aggressive concentration of media ownership. Over the past decade, two of India’s largest and most powerful industrial conglomerates—Reliance Industries and the Adani Group—have steadily acquired dominant stakes across the media landscape.........

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