Punekar News is a news portal available in English that was launched in 2014 by Amit Singh (Founder). Amit’s younger brother Sumit Singh is the Bureau Chief, and Mubarak Ansari is the Managing Editor.
Based in Maharashtra’s cultural and educational capital, Pune, it has interests in digital media, event management services, advertising, and public relations. The organization is guided by the philosophical theory of ‘Social First’ and is people-focused. It has an open and vibrant work environment that offers immense scope for advancement and growth. All the initiatives are guided by their potential for social impact and transformation.
Punekar News Founder – Amit Singh
Amit Singh, the Founder of Punekar News, is the son of a soldier and grandson of a farmer. He hails from Paina, a village of revolutionaries based in the Deoria district of Uttar Pradesh. He completed his schooling in different cities till his father got posted in Pune in the year 2002. He pursued his bachelor’s degree in Computer Science which included pursuing diploma and certification courses too. He got his first part-time job at Army’s Paraplegic Rehabilitation Centre (PRC) in Range Hills, Pune. He also worked as a data entry operator and a computer mechanic. He also has experience as a freelancer in Graphic and Web designing while pursuing his graduation.
In 2008, he started ‘Mrigtrishna,’ a company that provided IT and Web Solutions. At the time, he observed the magnanimous growth of digital platforms and wished to have something of his own on a digital platform. His dream got realized in 2014 with the launch of Punekarnews.in and Indiareporting.in.
Amit shut Mrigtrishna and in 2013 started POSA Foundation to work with orphanages, social organizations, and government schools. He worked closely with social workers in different states. Accident-Free Road and Right to Treatment programs were initiated with big names like Tata, Axis Bank, Maharashtra Police, Yerwada Mental Hospital, Indian Army, Sansad Adarsh Gram Yojana, IIFM, Hair India, etc.
Mubarak Ansari hails from a village in the Adapur block of East Champaran district in Bihar. His father, Subedar Manzoor Ansari (Retd.), has served in the Indian Army. During his posting in Pune city, he found it a great place to live and shifted his family along with him to Pune.
Mubarak completed his school education at Army Public School and Kendriya Vidyalaya in Khadki. He pursued his bachelor’s degree in Journalism and Mass Communication from Indira School of Communication in Pune and started his career with a weekly newspaper, ‘Intelligent Pune,’ in 2009. At the time, he was pursuing the last year of his graduation. Later, he worked with Sakal Times, an English daily newspaper, and Pune Mirror, an English Tabloid. In May 2020, the Founder of Sakal Times shut it amid the Corona crisis, and he joined Punekar News as the Managing Editor.
In 2008, Amit told his friend Mubarak that with Mubarak’s knowledge of content and technical capabilities, they could collaborate and start an online news portal. Mubarak did not find the idea practical at the time. He was a bit skeptical at the time as he had just started his career. Mubarak wanted to build his career in print media and work with The Times of India and The Indian Express, so working for digital media was not on his mind.
However, Mubarak did not lose hope and kept telling Amit about news content whenever he got an opportunity. Over the years, Amit kept reminding Mubarak and giving suggestions on how to do it without much investment. But Mubarak had no idea how digital media worked as he had not done anything in the field. Both friends stayed in touch through the years. After spending five years on the field as a court and crime reporter and in the backdrop of the massive digital initiative pushed by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the then Prime Ministerial candidate Shri Narendra Modi in the Lok Sabha election, digital media left an imprint on Mubarak’s mind.
He told Amit that the Public Relations (PR) and the Press Information Bureau (PIB) are significant sources of information. After the long wait of many years, the golden moment had finally arrived in Amit’s life. Mubarak called him and said that we should start a news website. Amit’s happiness knew no bounds after hearing this. He was waiting for a nod from Mubarak’s side, and Punekar News came into existence. Punekar News was launched in the year 2014 on the day of Eid-Ul-Fitr.
Amit received guidance and support from senior journalist Nadeem Inamdar, who became the first editor of Punekar News. The news portal got recognition in the Pune media circle solely because of him. After Nadeem Inamdar left, Sumit Singh, the younger brother of Amit Singh and a friend of Mubarak Ansari, became the backbone and face of Punekar News.
A lot of young interns at Punekar News provided much-needed diversity and energy to the organization. After senior journalist Sushant Ranjan joined the team, Punekar News reached a new height in the Pune media.
Now Punekar News is associated with an orphanage housing fifty city children and is determined to bring happiness in their lives. Despite their selfless work, they have also become the voice of the social workers and organizations who could never find a place in the prime-time newspapers. Punekar News brings out news from every nook and corner of the Pune district. It is the best platform to highlight the burning issues of society and is solely aimed at making a difference in people’s lives. When the media was swayed by commercial factors, especially in corona and lockdown, Punekar news had stood its ground.
The biggest challenge for Punekar news was to get a place in the mobile phone of every Punekar and to keep them connected. In the beginning, when the website did not get many visitors, the corporates and other organizations used to give them the cold shoulder. Once a prominent builder said many things about the website’s reach, which Sumit did not appreciate. And now, the same builder wants to get his authored articles published on Punekar News.
Amit got a lot of feedback from people, among which few were good, and most of them were bad ones. Some people did not like the name ‘Punekar News’ and were advised to change it. However, such feedback only made him stronger. It was Amit’s father who was his strength. He never pressured him to do something he didn’t like and allowed him to do what he liked. The blessings from his father made him worth something. His difficulties disappeared like water bubbles after his younger brother Sumit and friend Mubarak joined him in this endeavor.
According to Mubarak, a man without money faces many difficulties in this era, where money decides almost everything. With the support of his parents and the motivation of his wife, Dr. Foujia Naj Parveen, he had survived, and personally, the same difficulties were faced by Amit, Sumit, and Nadeem. In the last year, Punekar news has been able to swim through the economic tides and hopes to do well in the future too. Till now, no support has been taken from any investor.
Amit finds his inspiration in his habit of stubbornness to do something and the determination to accomplish it. Sumit also found inspiration in startups that succeeded. Their owners and their techniques became a source of motivation for him. Mubarak finds his inspiration in the idea of working hard and getting paid accordingly. He gets his strength from his grandfather and father, who he considers an idol of ‘hard work.’
By the time Mubarak had taken over in June 2020, Punekar news had gained familiarity as a popular news portal reporting extensively about the corona crisis in the city. The website was getting about 25K views in a month. At present, Punekarnews receives an average of 15 lakh visitors every month. It has about 1.2 lakh followers on Facebook. It is also growing on Twitter and LinkedIn. Visitors to Punekarnews in January 2021 were 15 lakhs, 13 lakhs in February, and 17 lakhs in March.
Their focus was local issues. Maintaining the number of visitors is a significant challenge, but they do not publish irrelevant or sexually explicit news to attract visitors. Credibility and the speed of posting authentic information are what people have liked about Punekar News.
The trio works by identifying a person, organization, or group working to change society. Through Punekarnews, they try to reach out to them and help them. As they have become a prominent voice in Pune, they raise people’s concerns and address their grievances with the authorities.
In the last year, they have supported many organizations, outlets, and companies by giving them a platform for free publicity as they suffered economic losses during the lockdown. They also motivate students and organizations doing social work as they often do not find space in the mainstream media.
The trio wants to expand and reach every nook and corner of India. They have now launched a news website in Marathi, www.punekarnewsmarathi.in.
Apart from www.punekarnews.in, they are also spearheading www.indiareporting.in for national-level news and www.mumbaikarnews.in for information about Mumbai. If everything goes as per their plan, they will have almost a hundred websites in the coming years.
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