Today marks two years since we launched Quartz India.
When we decided to invest in digital journalism in India, we were entering uncharted territory. Online-only media was relatively nascent and untrusted in the country. We vowed to present you with a fresh business news outlet that would explore new forms of storytelling, respect your time, and situate India for both the local and global reader. Our aspirations were born of the conviction that digital focus would allow us to provide you with even more relevant coverage, accessible on your smartphones you always have near at hand.
The year of our launch was also a critical moment in India’s history. Narendra Modi had just won a landslide victory in the country’s general elections, promising jobs, growth, and prosperity to millions of young Indians. Economically, the country’s startup sector was on the cusp of boom. And in science, India stunned the world with its successful and incredibly cheap Mars mission.
Quartz India reporters captured that year and this past one with quick takes, original reportage, and analysis. We also offered you lighter fare, from write-ups on dating to reimagining work-life balance, highlighting the changing social and cultural norms in 21st century India.
Some of our other coverage obsessions included chronicling the lives of working women in Asia’s third-largest economy and the country’s battle for net neutrality.
We have continued to build our team and deepen our news coverage as the stories of India unfold. Two years on, Modi’s moment has become Modi’s test. India’s startups, which once seemed to have limitless promise, do not look so infallible anymore.
This year, we will continue covering the impact of India’s breathless growth on environment and profiling businesses that can perhaps only exist in this country. We will also write extensively about the education and healthcare crises in the world’s second-most populous nation. With the country’s economy on the mend, its manufacturing and technology sectors will, particularly, be on our radar.
For our readers in India, Quartz India is also a home for relevant coverage of the new global economy, from Quartz’s more than 80 journalists around the world.
We have also offered you Quartz in increasingly creative forms. The most recent example is our iPhone app, which delivers news written for a chat interface by a team of Quartz journalists. Thousands of charts have been published on Atlas, the home for data and charts on the internet created by Quartz. Our Daily Brief email newsletter has over 200,000 loyal subscribers and has inspired other Indian news organizations to echo its approach. You can also see Quartz India on Snapchat and Facebook Live.
We’re building Quartz to be the business news brand of our century. Our growing team of journalists—in Mumbai, Delhi, Kolkata, and Bangalore—have studied in and reported from around the world and will continue to explore varied forms of storytelling. We also want readers who are living the stories of India to write for us, and you can do that by simply getting in touch with our Ideas team.
You can stay in touch with us by following our Facebook and Twitter pages. Please feel free to contact our newsroom directly with tips or suggestions by emailing hi@qz.com. And if you have not already signed up for our iPhone app or the Daily Brief, you should do that now.
Thanks for your readership in these first two years—you have our commitment to keep working hard to earn it going forward.
Sincerely,
Diksha Madhok, editor of Quartz India, @dikshamadhok
Kevin J. Delaney, editor in chief of Quartz, @delaney