CNN-News18’s flagship event, the Town Hall, returns on 28 June 2025 with a special edition titled ‘Borders to Business—The Strength of Bharat’, focusing on India’s defence sector and national security. This edition will feature high-ranking defence personnel, government officials and defence experts discussing themes such as modern warfare, indigenous defence production, and lessons from Operation Sindoor. The event will include sessions with Air Marshal Ashutosh Dixit, Defence Secretary Rajesh Kumar Singh, BSF Assistant Commandant Neha Bhandari, Lt Gen Vinod G. Khandare (Retd.), and DRDO’s Dr Sudhir Mishra, among others. “CNN-News18 has been India’s No. 1 English news channel for over three years now,” said Smriti Mehra, CEO - English & Business News, Network18. “The Defence Edition of CNN-News18 Town Hall brings together sharp minds to discuss the strength and resilience of our armed forces and the success of Operation Sindoor.” Managing Editor Zakka Ja

Congress leader Shashi Tharoor is in Russia to promote a documentary series based on his book Inglorious Empire. The series is produced by Russia’s state-run TV network RT and will air later this year. Tharoor reportedly landed in St Petersburg on June 21 to attend the Economic Forum and then travelled to Moscow, where he met top Russian leaders, including Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and also met members of the Indian community. Apart from promoting the series, he discussed topics like terrorism, the Gaza conflict and India-Russia relations.

Radio City stole the show at the inaugural Maharashtra Radio Festival held on World Music Day 2025 at Yashwantrao Chavan Auditorium, Mumbai. Organised by the Government of Maharashtra, the event was graced by Padma Vibhushan Asha Bhosale, CM Devendra Fadnavis, and IT Minister Ashish Shelar. Radio City won the “Maharashtra Asha Best Radio Station” award, presented by CM Fadnavis, who also sang “Abhi Na Jao Chhod Kar” with Asha Tai, creating a heartfelt moment. RJ Shonali bagged the Best Marathi Radio Presenter award. The festival featured cultural performances, live orchestras, and nostalgic displays of vintage radios. RJs Archana and Janavi Iyer joined panel discussions, while popular voices like Salil, Abhishek, Karan, and Harshit also marked their presence. Radio City CEO Ashit Kukian said the award reflects their deep listener connection and commitment to creative storytelling. National Programming Head Anurita Patel added, “This honour celebrates the emotional bond w

In a world where national headlines chase clicks and news cycles move faster than you can say "breaking," there’s one form of journalism quietly refusing to be swept away by the algorithm: hyperlocal reporting. It doesn’t scream for attention—it earns it. By telling stories that start at the street corner and end at the school gate, hyperlocal journalism remains rooted in community, driven by sincerity, and committed to accuracy over virality. Two publications—Southern Times and Mylapore Times—may be charting very different paths, but they share the same DNA: news that doesn’t just inform but belongs to its readers. Take Southern Times, for instance. With more than 20 years under its belt reporting from Tamil Nadu, the paper decided earlier this year to leap into the Bengaluru market. A bold move, especially at a time when print journalism is struggling to keep its ink from drying up. From rising newsprint costs to shrinking ad revenues, the odds aren’t exactly stacke

Image source: Republic World, IndiaPost Live and India Today; Edited by Dinesh Raj M   After multiple postponements, Axiom-4 Mission lifted off Wednesday carrying commander Peggy Whitson (US), 65, Group Captain Shubhanshu Shukla, 39, and mission specialists Sawosz Uznanski (Poland), 41, and Tibor Kapu (Hungary), 34, on a 14-day mission to ISS. In the pilot seat of ‘Dragon’, the Axiom-4 space capsule that would take a four-member crew to the International Space Station on Thursday, was India’s Shukla.  Hot off the Press Shukla becomes the first Indian to cross the ‘Karman line’ in over 41 years, after Wing Commander Rakesh Sharma’s flight on the Soviet Soyuz T-11 on April 3, 1984. Shukla’s message from space — “this isn’t the beginning of my journey to ISS, but the beginning of India’s human space flight programme” — reflects India’s ambition to have its own space station by 2035 and crewed missions to the Moon and beyond, wrote Chethan Kumar for

Pride shouldn't be a seasonal PR stunt. For queer journalists in India, June may bring rainbow logos and token shout-outs—but the real fight is for something far less decorative: daily dignity, representation, and equal opportunity inside newsrooms.   This Pride Month, Influencing India spoke to a few queer journalists who offered candid insights into what inclusion really looks like behind the headlines.   Ragamalika Karthikeyan, a strategic communications leader and co-founder of InQlusive Newsrooms (with Queer Chennai Chronicles and The News Minute), has trained over 300 journalists across India and produced LGBTQIA+ media sensitivity guides in six languages. For her, visibility has never been the challenge—it’s newsroom structures that remain slow to evolve.   “Just because you have a queer journalist in your organisation doesn't mean you bring them out once a year during Pride Month. They have expertise beyond just queerness. They may know about policy, law, history,

CommunicationsDay founder, Grahame Lynch told Influencing this year’s CommsDay Summit saw its “biggest ever audience”.  “We had around 550 badges on the door. An important breadth of the industry was there, and I say that it's a great opportunity for people to network or meet each other for the first time.” “We achieved that number with audience scale, not so big that it wasn’t personal, and it wasn’t so big that it was alienating, which is often the case with international conferences. We thought we achieved a very happy medium with how it turned out.” The Summit took place on June 17 and 18 at The Fullerton Hotel in Sydney and Lynch said the big topic across the two days was AI.  “AI was examined in terms of how it can be applied to the operations of telcos, which can result in both cost savings and the optimisation of operations and the creation of new applications,” said Lynch. “The second was looking at how AI affects telco … it's generated an in