** United News of India (UNI), is a multilingual news agency in India. It was founded on 19 December 1959 as an English news agency. Its commercial operations were started from 21 March 1961.
United News of India.
The agency’s subscribers include newspapers published in 14 languages, All India Radio and Doordarshan, the Prime Minister’s Office as well as Union Minister’s offices, Central and State governments, corporate and commercial houses besides electronic and web based media.
** It has News Bureaus in all state capitals and other major cities. The agency also has representatives in key world capitals.
** UNI was the first to start a multi-language news service UNIVARTA on May 1, 1982, that continues to provide Hindi newspapers and media organizations a comprehensive package of national, international, regional, sports and commercial news in their language of publication.
** UNI pioneered News Photo Service in 1987, started with dispatching just about a dozen Black & White photos through courier to subscribers, now UNI uses the latest technology to make available digital color photos numbering nearly 150 from all over the country.
** UNI remains the first and only news agency in the world to supply news in Urdu. UNI Urdu service was launched by then Prime Minister PV Narsimha Rao on June 5, 1992.
✓ Background
Press Council of India (PCI) in its first Press Commission report (1952-1954) emphasized on the importance of second news agency so that they can act as corrective to each other. But even after the support of PCI, United Press of India collapsed in 1958, due to financial problems. So some leading newspapers felt the need of a second news agency along with Press Trust of India. This led to the formation of United News of India under Dr. Bidhan Chandra Roy, sponsored by eight leading newspapers The Statesman, Hindustan Times, The Hindu, Hindustan Standard, The Times of India, Deccan Herald, Amrita Bazar Patrika and Aryavarta.
** UNI is registered as a non-profit company under section 25 of the Indian Companies Act. It is owned by the group of newspapers that have bought shares to run them. Newspapers elect the board of directors which are headed by a chairman. The chairman is the main authority in policy making of the news agency. The Board is headed by the chairman, consists of representatives prominent newspapers as well as public figures.
Source: United News of India Official Page, Wikipedia. Written by Rajat Ranjan.
