Of Women and Mainstream Media—2 BITSians and an ISB Alumnus Bringing Real Life Heroes Together

Three women from different walks of life have recently achieved a critical milestone in mainstream media with their remarkable social experiments. Anuradha Kedia-Parekh is the founder of The Better India (TBI), a positive news organization. On the other hand, Aarti Mohan leads The Alternative (TA), a media platform for social impact, while Megha Ghosh is the founder of I See India (ISI), a one-stop place for all good news about India.

Both Parekh and Mohan are from India’s technical hub Bangalore while Ghosh lives in Hyderabad after getting recently married. These three women of substance have sacrificed their well-paying jobs and careers to bring about a change in society with their dreams.

Parekh co-founded TBI with her husband Dhimant in the year 2008 while Mohan co-founded Sattva (TA is Sattva’s media arm) with three BITS Pilani batchmates—Srikrishna Sridhar Murthy, Rathish Balakrishnan, and Vikram Rai.

Megha Ghosh is a graduate in electronics and communication engineer from BITS Pilani and has also worked in Telecom giant before she founded ISI in 2011.
“Initially, we went reporting around Bangalore city to discover and know more about individuals and organizations doing selfless work. We put those stories and photographs on our blog and circulated on Facebook and e-mail. The response took us by surprise,” recalls Parekh.

TBI is now anchored by around 30 volunteering writers. On the other hand, The Alternative (TA) has over 500 such contributors from across the globe.

TA is also recognized for its Green Bazaar initiative across Bangalore to motivate its readers become consumers of green products.

“At TA, we want people to be informed — about issues surrounding the environment, human rights, gender, clean living, low-impact travel — and associated problems and challenges,” clarified Mohan.

Ghosh derives her inspiration from TBI and TA.
“I wanted to start a media source for only the good news of India. When I was working at my first job, I saw first-hand the high stress levels persisting in the corporate sector. Why bombard people with negativity while neglecting the contribution of grassroots change-makers? So, I quit my job and started I See India on August 15, 2011. If people are presented with more solution-based stories, they will also develop an attitude of thinking about ways to solve a given problem in society. The government and NGOs are not solely responsible for solving our problems. Citizens too can make significant contributions at the micro level,” Ghosh said.
TBI attracts over 2 lakh visitors every month while the number of readers visiting TA is around a lakh a month.
I See India or ISI is on its way to progress. It is solely founded and funded entity.
“But the present growth rate of new FB subscribers is 520 per cent a week. I will seek outside funding when I See India is better established,” said Ghosh.
This post was published by Rakesh Singh, The product head at askIITians and an IIT- Delhi and IIM-Kozhikode alumni.