J Gopikrishnan
The Pioneer
October 9, 2012
Congress President Sonia Gandhi and her son Rahul Gandhi have floated a private company called Young Indian, which is expected to relaunch the defunct party-owned newspaper the National Herald. The new company Young Indian is registered under Section 25 of the Companies Act.
Sonia and Rahul have 38 per cent shares each in the new venture, registered at the address of the national Herald building in New Delhi. The rest of the shares are equally divided between Gandhi family’s trusted Congress leaders Motilal Vora and Oscar Fernades.
Apart from these four persons, former journalist Suman Dubey and technocrat Sam Pitroda are the other directors in this venture. Dubey is the authorised signatory and holds the designation of Managing Committee Member.
According to RoC documents, the Young Indian has acquired more than Rs.90 crore liability of National Herald owner company the Associated Journals Limited. The Young Indian has absorbed the liability by issuing nine crore shares of Rs.10 each. The decision to take over the liability was of the defunct newspaper company was taken at the board meeting of the Young Indian in last week of June. The meeting was held at 10 Janpath. The documents filled with RoC of both the companies show that AICC has funded the new venture and the old company has become a subsidiary of the Young Indian.
“The company is engaged in the activities to inculcate in the mind of India’s youth commitment to the ideal of a democratic and secular society and provides for application of its profits or income in pursuit of thereof,” is the main objective of Young India.
When contacted, Vora said, “We will inform at the appropriate time”. Vora is the Chairman and Managing Director of the Associated Journals Limited.
The Associated Journals Limited was started as a public limited company under the leadership of Jawaharlal Nehru in 1938 to launch the National Herald. The company collapsed in 2008 when the newspaper was closed down. To promote nationalism and to compete with British-owned newspapers, in 1938 Nehru floated Associated Journals Limited to run the National herald. The public limited company’s other promoters were leaders like Purushottam Das Tandon, Narendra Deva, Kailash Nath Katju, Rafi Ahmed Kidwai and Sri Krishna Dutt Paliwal.
‘No plans to revive National Herald’ – Rahul
Pioneer News Service
October 11, 2012
AICC general secretary Rahul Gandhi has clarified that the newly floated company Young Indian with his mother Sonia Gandhi as major shareholders have no intention of relaunching any newspaper. Responding to The Pioneer report, Rahul said that Young Indian is not a profit oriented venture.
“Young Indian is a company registered and holding a licence granted under Section 25 of the Companies Act, 1956. As a Section 25 company, Young Indian, is a not-for-profit company and does not have commercial operation. The activities of the company are in the public domain. Anyone who chooses to can inspect the Objects of the Company. The company has no intention of starting any newspaper,” informed Rahul Gandhi’s office in an e-mail on Tuesday night.
The Pioneer on Monday reported that Congress president Sonia Gandhi and Rahul have floated a new private company called Young Indian, which was expected to relaunch the party owned daily National Herald.
Sonia and Rahul have 38 per cent shares each in the new venture, registered at the National Herald building in New Delhi. The rest of the shares are held equally by Gandhi family’s trusted Motilal Vora and Oscar Fernades. The Associated Journals Limited, which owns the National Herald is now the subsidiary of Young Indian.