Village TV, a Community based village level visual media outreach programme will be formally launched at Hosangadi Village, Belthangady Taluk, Dakshina Kannada District on October 24th by the Chief Guest for the occasion, Dr. C V Ananda Bose IAS (Rtd), Principal Advisor, Heritage Project, Government of India. Santosh Kumar Pattanayak, former MD Indian Railway Finance Corporation will be the guest of honour at the event. Prof. P. Subramania Yadapadithaya, Vice Chancellor, Mangalore University and Dr. Selvamani Raju IAS, CEO of Dakshina Kannada Zilla Panchayath are the Chief Guests.
The Hosangadi Grama Panchayat was declared as a model Grama Panchayat in 2007 and has undertaken several progressive Eco-friendly initiatives and what are considered by many to be best practices. These include My House; My Road, My House; Clean House, My Shop; Clean Shop, My Plant; My Tree. Participating in the launch of Village TV is just the beginning of a new chapter in its progress.
“Besides providing the students of Alva’s School of Journalism real-time experience in rural journalism – the place from where all journalists must start their career – the channel will train local youth to be journalists, who will shoot positive stories of their surroundings through the ICT platform,” said Prasad Shetty, a Professor of Journalism at the Department of Journalism and Mass Communication at Alvas College Moodbdidri. “After the VJs shoot the videos each not exceeding five minutes, Alva’s Journalism students will do minimum editing and publish it. Documentaries will also be done on the unique cultural and traditional aspects of the villages which will enhance the region’s tourism elements and bring additional economic activities in rural India” he added. He said the purpose of Village TV is to make people of “the outer world” learn the “best practices” of villages in order to help other villages adopt the same. “It is nothing but a community-integrated communication approach for sustainable development”.
“We should stop focusing on patents and should start unearthing the treasure called our rural wisdom”, Dr. Kurian, Principal of Alvas College and a pillar of support to Village TV told Newskarnataka.com. Sharing the vision of the Alva’s Education Foundation, he said, “People’s medicine is more important than corporate medicine. One of the missions of Village TV is to document and share the Village Knowledge treasure chest with the larger world; Villagers are happy to share; They are contented and are happy when others are benefitted with their interventions”, Dr Kurian added
Srinivas Pejathaya, Head of the Department, Journalism and Mass Communication, Alva’s College told Newskarnataka.com that rural development journalism is the real journalism because it has purpose, a message and is positive, in comparison to the superficial journalism generally practiced today and he and the journalism students of Alvas College are delighted and fully committed to this initiative. because its the way forward to an integrated developed India.
Village TV has been coordinated by N V Paulose, Director, Media Innovations, Spearhead Media Pvt. Ltd, the owners of the popular Karnataka-focused website www.newskarnataka.com, and Chairman Global TV, the first Internet TV. The rural reality show will be produced in association with the Journalism and Mass Communication Department of Alva’s College, Moodbidri. An MOU to this effect was signed at Moodbidri on 21-10-2019.
Speaking to Newskarnataka.com NV Paulose said, “It has long been my dream to start a channel like this. With 70 percent of our population living in villages and the village being the rice bowl of the country, there are secrets galore there that the world can benefit from – Traditional knowledge on a variety of subjects that can be applied to issues that the urban world is grappling with. In turn, once the world sees the potential of a village, they will be ready to come and contribute to its development, with time, skills and money. So it is a win-win solution to the problem of migration from our villages to the city. It is only the media that can bridge the gap between the rural and urban populace. It is this basic fact that helped me conceive this unique project.”
Paulose said that he believes that collective not competitive action for a common goal is the key to achieving it. “I believe in collective wisdom and action. The coming together of diverse talents and thoughts for a common goal, can make for a vibrant and engaging road map to achieve it; and that is what we have achieved with this project that combines the talents of the students of the Alvas Department of Mass Communication and Journalism, the skills of their faculty, the expertise in the Media field of the Spearhead Media / Newskarntaka.com team and the power of technology. With the entire Alva’s journalism and Newskarntaka.com team behind this unique pro-development project, it is bound to be a grand success and I can’t wait for it to be launched”, he told Newskarnatka.com. “Even though the launch is just a couple of days away, I have already started getting goosebumps!” said an excited Paulose. He believes that the quality of journalism and journalists will be enhanced by this initiative.
CA Valerian Dalmaida, the face of Newskarnataka.com in the UAE and the gulf, a Fellow Member of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India, currently practising as a consultant for an accounting and advisory firm in Abu Dhabi is also a big fan of this initiative and has been mobilizing Kannadigas in the UAE to support this initiative, encouraging them to put the Village TV team in touch with with their roots most of which are in the villages of Karnataka. Speaking to Newskarntaka.com, CA Valerian Dalmaida said of this project launch, “I am extremely excited to be a part of this project and indeed the face of it in the UAE and Gulf. I have already spoken to a lot of Kannadigas in the Gulf and they too are very excited and promised to help the team get in touch with their roots. My only regret is that I will not be able to make it for the launch personally as I will be busy with Newskarnataka’s other culture project in the UAE – Geet Ghazal 2.0 – a program that celebrates Poets and their Poetry; but I am with the team in spirit.” CA Valerian Dalmaida said that it was his dream to take the village to the world and for Newskarnataka.com to pioneer and pilot this project, it is more than a dream come true. He hoped that it will result in sustainable investments in villages. He said, “Glocalization should replace the word Globalization in our development discourse”.
Village TV was soft-launched on Sept 13th this year by Dr Selvamani R. CEO, Dakshina Kannada Zilla Panchyat (ZP) on September 13 at the ZP office. The programme was launched with a symbolic handing over of a TV mic to the HOD, Department of Journalism, Srinivas Pejathaya and students of the Department of Journalism, Alva’s College, Moodbidri, who were also present at the launch.
The launch was preceded by the presentation of a model of the Village TV platform recorded and edited by the students of the Alva’s School of Journalism under the guidance of their HOD and faculty. It was a wonderful portent of things to come forth from this initiative. Lal Goel, Chairman, Organ Donation India Foundation and Chief Promoter Pandit Health Resort & Spa, CA Valerian Dalmaida, Director, Finance and Operations, Spearhead Media Group and Dr. Devraj K., Founder Director of SDM College of Business Management, Mangaluru and S. L. Bhandarkar, Coordinator, Alva’s Newseum (only the second in the world after Washington DC) were the guests of honor at the soft launch.
Follow Village TV on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram @villagetvindia. Write into the Village TV team with your feedback, ideas, and expression of interest to participate at villagetvindia@gmail.com; and of course, follow its progress on www.newskarnataka.com
