“India’s rural newspaper”, Gaon Connection, has rolled out. The 14-page weekly broadsheet was launched by Uttar Pradesh chief minister Akhilesh Yadav in Itaunja, a village near Lucknow, on Sunday.
“72 per cent Indians live in villages but do the villages receive 72 per cent of government funds? This newspaper will speak on such issues and many others,” said the editor-in-chief of the newspaper Dr S.B. Misra, a former geologist, who “became famous after discovering 565 million-year-old fossils in Canada, plugging a hole in Darwin’s theory of evolution.”
Dr Misra’s son, the magazine journalist turned radio storyteller, Neelesh Misra, is the brain behind Gaon Connection. A team of 20 urban and rural journalists is behind what is touted to be “India’s biggest rural media innovation”.
Photograph: courtesy Mayank Chhaya
Follow GC on Twitter: @GaonConnection
Also read: Put your money where your mouth is
IJR 
Thank you for this mention about Gaon Connection. I must point out though that the picture above that you have so generously credited to me is actually not mine. It was taken from the Gaon Connection website and I suspect it was taken by Neelesh himself. But I could be wrong. I never fail to mention credit on my blog but I missed this time..
Why a chief minister is called to inaugurate such a great concept. Would have been apt if a Village Head (Gaon Mukhiya) had launched the newspaper. Cheers, anyways.