The second event of News Karnataka’s Decennial Programme series was held on Monday August 9 at 7.00 pm.
Retired Chairman and Managing Director of Indian Overseas Bank, Dr. M. Narendra was the Chief Guest for the event. He spoke on the topic ‘Banking and Media Entrepreneurship.’
During the prefatory remarks, Director of Spearhead Media, Canute J. Pinto said, “10 years is a big achievement when it comes to Spearhead media, considering the many ups and downs it had in the past. We wanted to celebrate this by taken into consideration the many industries like banking which has evolved a lot since the pandemic times. Through such programs, we wanted to understand what such industries expect from the media and in turn, get to know about their idea of media from the key players.”
“We cannot work without the media,” said Dr Narendra, “banks also need to popularise their schemes and various achievements. Even in terms of customer achievement, financial inclusion, social objectives, self-help groups, farmers’ programme, all these schemes will have to be popularised and we have to bring that to the notice of the public. With this the financial literacy also comes through. Be it social media, online media, or media entrepreneurs and channels like News Karnataka, they come handy for the bank to reach out to the customers and make the access to the bank easier.”
Speaking about the relation of media with IOB bank, he said, “we have a very good connectivity with the media people and they are very true to our requirements also.”
Dr. Narendra said that Spearhead Media, News Kannada and News Karnataka has been one of the role models from the point of view of providing genuine news to the people.
When answering the question on how new media will get the proper funding required, he said, “Our Reserve Bank of India, after they surveyed a bunch of start-ups, and when they found that most of the them are not funded by banks but are crowdfunded, they made up to 50 crs of start-up funding as a priority sector for the bank.”
The talk was followed by a question-and-answer session during with Dr. Narendra cleared various doubts related to the topic.
While answering a query on the funding for lower strata media and its growth when compared to bigger media bodies, Dr. Narendra said, “all the media which have now become professional and strong, have passed through different stages of growth. It is not an overnight process. Each one of them have a little distinctiveness and the people who are advertising in their platforms also see the type of value proposition they are offering. Some companies have historical brand values and accordingly they get major support from the government or private corporate. Smaller media houses should focus on their values and growth will happen, eventually.”
President of the event and Mentor of Spearhead Media, CA Valerian Dalmaida gave the presidential address. The vote of thanks was delivered by Director of Spearhead Media Brian Fernandes.
