CHAMPAK

Champak is a children’s fortnightly magazine named after a tropical flower. It has been on the scene from 1968 being published by Delhi Press Group. Today Champak is available in eight languages – Hindi, English, Gujarati, Marathi, Kannada, Tamil, Telegu and Malayalam. Its founder is Vishwa Nath (1917-2002).
Champak consists of modern stories for children with a moral tone. It does not try to smuggle in adult folk tales as stuff for children. Champak continues to remain a household name and a hot favourite for seniors of today who were green fans of Champak yesterday. It is not unusual to see grandparents rifle through the satchels of grandchildren in search of a copy. .
What is the reason behind this sustained success story of Champak even today when the TV seems to be gobbling up all the attention of children and adults alike?  It is a fact that reading habits have taken a nosedive. For this parents are concerned. But Champak continues to merrily rule. Firstly the covers are very attractive. One copy has the sun rising behind the humps of a curious camel. There is a young painter splashing with colours in front being supervised by a nosy dog. The magazine is in the attractive form of a booklet that will stand up to the wear and tear of young fingers. The contents page is a fantasy world of marching animals – a lion on a throne, a wily fox trying to pass for a fortuneteller and a mouse with a school bag. It is the animation of animals with characters like Inspector Leopard that has won over hearts. Champak is also the name of a forest called Champak-van. It takes back the imagination to our lost forests and the fast vanishing time when man was at one with the animals and felt for them deeply and empathetically.  Above all Champak continues to sell because compared to the market the price is extremely reasonable.
Champak consists of three sections – Stories, Picture Stories and Your Page. The groups are not rigidly separated but intermingle to give the reader relief. For instance jokes and puzzles might pop up from the bottom of the page. The comics are colourful. Some of the characters like Cheeku the rabbit and Meeku the mouse have become immortal with each passing generation. Champak teases out the creativity of children by inviting them to healthy competitions and asking them to send in jokes. It is not without its news where in one issue Children’s Festival has been reviewed. Behind the fun and merriment Champak slowly draws the reader into the world of knowledge like plain facts about planes and why clapping lead to a loud sound does. If you want to know why bees buzz and why leaves fall in autumn try going through one of the latest copies of Champak. There are brainteasers like spotting a mistake and challenges asking the cat to find the mouse through a maze of holes in a brick wall. Joining the dots is fun for all ages. There is also a page for the very young. In one issue the little one has to identify the animal from its outlined shadow. Each glossy page has a coloured picture. There are games galore like Champak Chekers.
Champak is not left behind in this age of computers. There is the Champak multimedia edition as well as Champak Jogo Disk containing games, wallpapers, screen savers, animation, coloring and click and paint. Competition and contributions are not always by snail mail. There is the option of sending your answer via sms. Champak has an E-Mail address and a website.
Champak has another great point in its favor. While marching with the computer cum mobile age Champak has not allowed itself to be trampled by the advertisement industry. Parents will be thankful to note that whatever little advertising is there in the issues, these are clean and not harmful. On the positive side there are many tips and references on other similar books and purchases that can be made for budding minds. It is only by flipping through the pages of Champak that the hungry reader will come to know that such publications exist.  So the vote is for Champak – whether from the adult or the child.

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3. DIGIT A MAGAZINE

DIGIT -A MAGAZINE

Let’s take a look at what each section has in store for you. Enter, which is the first section has all sorts of new products which are about to come into the market or have just been launched are introduced to you by their panel of experts.
Digital Passion is a section where you can read articles about how to fulfill your digital passions. It’s not just about the product but other accessories and essentials which make your digital experience more complete.
Digital Tools concentrates on tips and tricks for you. They take a gadget or programme and then tell you all sorts of tips to minimize your work and maximize your output. Clever shortcuts are devised and then written in the simplest possible way for you to understand and use it straight away.
Digital Business is the fourth section of the magazine. Here, the focus is on the new avenues opening up due to digital growth. A lot of articles are written about new businesses or how to make your business more digital.
The fifth part of this magazine is what attracts many readers and is known as Digital Leisure. Here the concentration is on different kinds of topics related to digital up roar. Articles about the first e-literate district etc. can be found here.
Escape comes to the end and tells you about different digital getaways. It’s an IT magazine but it has many uses. If you aren’t tech savvy, pick one and start reading there is soo much to learn and it’s all addicting.

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A conglomerate with as diverse interests in media as India itself, the India Today magazine is one of the oldest and most successful magazine in India. For more than three decades, the magazine has reported, commented, shared and enlightened readers with aplomb. The India Today group, that derived its name from its first magazine with the same name in 1975, today is a media behemoth with presence in magazines, television, radio, newspapers, Internet, books and music. The group has also acquired license to publish brands of other reputed global media houses in India like Cosmopolitan, Golf Digest, Reader’s Digest, Good Housekeeping, Men’s Health and Scientific American.
It wouldn’t be an exaggeration to say that India Today has defined the role of media houses in modern day India. The group now boasts of 13 magazines, 2 TV Channels, 3 radio stations, 1 newspaper and has made forays into music and book publishing. The group now has a reach of 35 million individuals.
Within a span of thirty years India Today, the magazine, has reached a weekly circulation of 1.4 million people and is still counting. To reach that sort of circulation figure in the cutthroat competitive world of magazines is a glorious achievement. The India Today magazine that started with a meager circulation of 5000 copies in 1975, today has a readership of over 20 million and around 1 million subscribers. Apart from the English edition, the magazine is published in five regional Indian languages including Hindi, Tamil, Telugu, Malayalam and Bengali.
India Today’s success is also partly due to the fact that its founder and editor-in-chief, Aroon Purie, have relentlessly and tirelessly strived to better the magazine. From the day of its inception till date he has worked hard to improve India Today and increase its readership base. The fact that he has remained editor-in-chief of the magazine for three decades is an achievement in itself. Before he laid the foundation for India Today, Purie was a chartered accountant. Purie, like two of his colleagues in India Today, is a product of the prestigious Doon School in Dehradun, India. He is also an alumnus of the London School of Economics. For his service to the nation, Aroon Purie was awarded the ‘Padma Bhushan’ in 2001, and aptly India’s ‘Journalist of the Year’ in 1990. Apart from these, he has won numerous other national awards in India.
Over the years the India Today magazine has evolved its own style of writing, which is popular among the young and the old alike. Whether your interests are politically inclined or business oriented; whether you are a student, a sports fan or an entertainment junkie, India Today is for all types of people. India Today has other ambitious projects on the anvil, in December 2006, the magazine entered into a partnership with the world renowned Harvard Business School Publishing Corporation to publish the Harvard Business Review South Asia in India. The Harvard Business Review in English is widely known as the most influential business magazine in the world. It has a reach of around half a million readers worldwide.
A news magazine or newspaper reflects the state of a nation and its people and at the same time plays a leading role in shaping public opinions about issues. It a hugely important and responsible task and there are few that can last in the long run. It has the power to inspire and guide a nation; it also has the power to misguide and destroy. Magazines like India Today have lived up to their name, and are truly a reflection of India, today.

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It is often said that ‘a pen is mightier than a sword’. And, this statement definitely holds true in the present circumstances. Nowadays, the markets are literally bombarded with a swarm of magazines, periodicals, newsletters. These magazines serve as an excellent means to increase people’s awareness about the various happenings taking place around them and crucial issues concerning their country and the world at large. These magazines play a very instrumental role in shaping people’s ideologies and gradually even hold the power to alter the way a nation thinks.
One such influential and highly successful magazine is “[[The Week]]”. This magazine basically covers current news articles. It is published by the famous Indian publication house known as the ‘Manorama Malaya Group of publications’. This magazine reviews and reports about the latest events and activities going in and around the country. The presentation style of all the articles is kept interesting and appealing enough to catch the attention of its readers. The news reports are presented in lucid and informative manner. All of its articles are witty and smack of intelligent humor. 
Another important advantage rendered by this magazine which makes it completely essential for its readers is that after each of its article, it provides detailed account of reviews concerning the topic by some noted critics.
Thus, as a reader goes on reading along the lines of the article, the reviews and unbiased report helps the reader to form his own non-judgmental view about that topic.
This magazine includes some regular features in its content which section-wise deal with interesting and worth knowing information. Some of such columns include The list, The world at a glance, Good week/ Bad week amongst others.
These detailed columns pertaining to some specific area of information assist the reader to learn about various issues which he would not have cared to know about otherwise. For example, the column The List includes a collective list of several books voted by celebrities over a week. Similarly, the column The World at a Glance includes latest news reports from around the world in crisp and concise capsule form.
The magazine’s witty humor is best represented by its column Good week for/Bad Week for which brands any two of the famous celebrities under either of the categories based on their accomplishments or failures during a week.
 
The magazine covers a host of information regarding all aspects of life ranging from critical political reviews, art, fashion and literature and business trends. All the articles published in the magazine are framed only after they are thoroughly reviewed from innumerous newspapers, online blogs etc.
The magazine’s punch line is “All you need to know about everything that matters” which is printed on the cover of all its issues. It would not be an exaggeration to say that it definitely lives up to this tag as all the latest, controversial topics are discussed in a very straightforward manner. Another praiseworthy fact to be noticed about this magazine is that no issue or report is given unrequited attention or hype.
The magazine is a perfect blend of all the required doses of information in apt quantities. Ranging from political agendas to movie reviews, health issues to catching up on latest bits of gossip, the magazine carries it all.
Another bonus advantage rendered by its readers is that the magazine is now available online as well. The website illustrates and displays all the articles of the magazine online. In fact, important feature columns are assigned separate additional links in the official website of the magazine, which makes it all the more interesting for a reader to easily access them.
 

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1. DIGIT A MAGAZINE
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3. Champak