Veteran PTI journalist Sethuraman no more

VETERAN journalist Srinivasa Sethuraman, a former chief news editor of the Press Trust of India (PTI), died in Chennai on Sunday following a brief illness, family sources said. He was 99, reports The Print.

He is survived by three sons and a daughter.

Sethuraman began his journalistic career at Nagpur in 1941 as an editorial assistant in The Hitavada newspaper before joining PTI – then API – in 1945.

Based in Nagpur, he also covered significant developments in Sewagram, Wardha, the abode of Mahatma Gandhi then.

After serving at PTI’s Central News Desk in then Bombay between 1954-57 which gave him a greater sense of perspective, he moved to Delhi to report on Parliament, Union ministries and parliamentary wings of ruling and opposition parties over a long period.

Sethuraman spent almost a lifetime in journalism, reporting and evaluating post-Independence development – political and economic – in the first 40 years of his career in PTI from 1945 to 1986.

Later, he served the news agency as a freelance journalist for over 35 years.

Vijay Joshi, CEO and Editor-in-Chief of PTI, paid tributes to Sethuraman, describing him as an inspiration to generations of journalists.

“PTI was privileged to have him at the helm of news for decades. Sethuraman was an anchor figure in business journalism during an era of economic transformation of India. His ability to decipher the Union Budget at lightning speed was unmatched. PTI family is deeply saddened by his passing,” he said.

Sethuraman was PTI’s Chief New Editor and Economics Editor between 1978-86.

His illustrious career in PTI includes covering major events in the Nehru era and later in the Indira Gandhi years between 1996-1984.

Writing on the economy was his forte, dwelling on both domestic and global growth issues, financial trends and North-South dialogues. He also reported on a series of international economic conferences in the post-war decades.

In PTI, Sethuraman launched an innovative PTI Economic Service in the mid-1970s, as a fortnightly brief for corporates and other user institutions.

The service provided overviews, industrial briefs and commodity profiles along with data updates on prices, banking, and stocks.

As an Editor, Sethuraman promoted the diversification of news service with more economic and social content and made substantial additions to PTI’s international datelines.

He was principally involved in the management’s drive to recruit new talent, selecting over 100 trainee journalists in the first half of the 1980s.

As a passionate Carnatic music lover, he evolved into a vocalist by his own efforts.