Hari Tudu and Rama Dutt and Gaurav Mehta are among the journalists who will be on the spot next month to share their experiences working with the media. The two veteran media figures, who are also joint publishers of The Hindu newspaper, will be joined by several other media luminaries, including Sanjeev Gupta, editor-in-chief of The Pioneer, and Manu Joseph, editor-in-chief of The Economic Times. These are part of a group of 25 reporters in each of the three regional dailies.

In the years since the Congress got back into power, we have seen a number of journalists from different parts of the country come together to share their experiences working in the media. This year, in fact, we are giving every journalist the opportunity to share his or her story and knowledge. These are stories from the past as news media and as today.

In July, at the media showrooms across India, we will be joined by senior journalists from different sections of the nation and different parts of the world. We are also looking for people with diverse backgrounds to share what they have learnt during their journey as journalists.

The purpose is to learn about the people we work with, be it government officials, journalists, analysts and public figures. These are the people who bring us information and perspectives – perspectives that we do not always get in life – and help us to think more about the complexities of politics, society, governance and the world at large. We cannot take on all the problems in the world without helping our people to think and analyse and understand. Being a journalist is one of the great challenges in life and not an easy one at times.

In the next couple of weeks, we are taking part in a series of meetings with editors and journalists from each region or jurisdiction, to discuss where journalism really lies and what the world of journalism is about. Once we have a few hundred journalists on the ground, we plan to convene workshops to help media groups to understand what makes journalists special, both as individuals and in their respective regions, and how we can work with them to achieve our objectives.