From the India desk
On jobs in journalism, the balance of trade, and the growing need for good coverage of India in the US-facing news media
The Economist magazine is advertising for a South Asia bureau chief, to be based in Delhi. It's not a new beat for the magazine to cover; there is already a Mumbai bureau and frequent coverage of India in the publication, generally. But it's unusual among its peers in the English-language news media.
■ Few US news outlets bother to staff bureaus in India. NBC has a shared bureau in New Delhi, while ABC and CBS have no such offices. The New York Times has a New Delhi bureau and CNN anchors its South Asia coverage from there as well, but by and large the foreign bureau is a rare find, including in India.
■ As a consequence of the sparse coverage, even a news junkie in America hears very little from day to day about India. Yet it's so big (India has eclipsed China as the world's most populous country) and so important to power relations that its absence is problematic. Is India, for instance, on the side of Ukraine or Russia in their current conflict? India is America's second-largest source of immigrants and one of our top-tier trading partners.
■ It's hard for important knowledge to break through if news isn't being covered, and India is becoming no less important to the balance of power and the future of the world generally than it was before. It's good to see a major outlet like The Economist sustaining its commitment to coverage of the subcontinent, but it would be good for others to follow their lead.
