The Financial Times wants to publish in India, says its editor, Lionel Barber, on a two-week visit to the sub-continent. But the FT has to convince the Indian authorities to lift its current bar on foreign companies investing more than 26% in the country's print media. To that end Barber has met the commerce minister Kamal Nath, and other government leaders, to argue his case for a policy change. Barber, speaking on CNBC-TV18, said, "We will aim for an élite readership", and pointed to the fact that the FT is a niche product which "we have been pursuing very successfully in the US."
But it's going to be an uphill battle: Indian publishers want to protect Indian newspapers as cultural entities. Though the International Herald Tribune has exploited a loophole to publish from Hyderabad as an Indian title, the FT title has been "appropriated" The Times of India group. This has been challenged in the court, which found against the FT. Unless it can turn matters around, the FT is effectively locked out of a exploiting a huge market. (Via Money Control)
