DEFENCE HAS BEEN one of the four focus areas of THE WEEK, as emphasised through its special section on theweek.in—Fortress India. Our coverage of all matters defence has been comprehensive over the years, driven largely by Resident Editor R. Prasannan.
In August 2023, Senior Assistant Editor Sanjib Kr Baruah interviewed the then Army chief, General Manoj Pande, exclusively for your favourite newsweekly. He has repeated the feat in this issue with an exclusive interview with General Upendra Dwivedi, Chief of the Army Staff. This is Gen Dwivedi’s first interview with a print publication.
In a frank interview, the general says that three principles have changed since Operation Sindoor. “First, there is zero tolerance to terrorism,” he said. “Second, talks and terror cannot go together. Third, any act of terror will be treated as an act of war. In that context, the Indian Army will not differentiate between terrorists and those who sponsor terrorism.” Of course, the interview goes much beyond Operation Sindoor to cover other neighbours, strategy and the atmanirbharta push.
In @leisure, Special Correspondent Anjuly Mathai covers the sixth edition of the Kochi-Muziris Biennale and goes beyond the show itself. As branding goes, the KMB’s original launch date has great recall value: 12/12/12.
This issue introduces a new column by health writer Shyla Jovitha Abraham and Dr Jame Abraham, enterprise chair of the department of hematology and medical oncology at Cleveland Clinic, the US. Medicine Beyond Borders will be a monthly column on what is shaping health care worldwide.
As General Dwivedi spoke about atmanirbharta, let me stop there. Malayala Manorama embraced atmanirbharta long before the word was popularised. As the printing press is the beating heart of a newspaper edition, publishers usually rely on time-tested suppliers for technology and consumables such as newsprint and ink.
My father, K.M. Mathew, bet on an Indian manufacturer of presses, and today that has become a longstanding and warm relationship between the Shahs of Kolhapur and us. Their Manugraph press, proudly Made in India, is central to our publishing today. Seven editions of the Malayala Manorama roll off Manugraphs every day.
There is a benefit of banking on manufacturers closer to home. When newsprint manufacturers doubled the width of their reels, we looked to the Shahs for a desi solution, and they built India’s first double-width press for us in 2012. There is another enduring Kolhapur connect that my father has. The slipper. He was its ‘brand ambassador’ to the end.