On November 4, ANI posted a video of Union Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal at Delhi’s IGI Airport, describing how he was “making productive use of his time by attending to some official work” while waiting to board a flight to New Zealand.

The minister is travelling to Auckland to hold negotiations for a Free Trade Agreement between the two countries.

The post, however, raised eyebrows for its promotional tone, echoing ANI’s long-running pattern of turning routine ministerial movements into “#WATCH” moments that resemble government publicity.

As Newslaundry has earlier reported, ANI has signed paid “PR package” contracts with at least seven state governments, including Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Telangana, Tripura and Uttarakhand, and also undertakes short-term deals with companies and union ministries.

Under these agreements, ANI deploys teams to cover chief ministers and government events for annual fees ranging from Rs 48 lakh to Rs 1.5 crore.

You can read our full investigation here: ANI’s news business: ‘PR’ contracts with CMs, podcasts and a quest for power

Meanwhile, back on X, users had a fun day. Some wondered why the minister was working so hard in front of the camera, others questioned ANI’s access, and how the rest of the middle class managed to work just as hard without cameras or PR to document it (and with taxes to pay on top of it).

We thought we should join in on all the productivity.

At the time of writing this report, Goyal’s airport video had already been shared by at least three mainstream media outlets (here, here, and here).

Newslaundry had earlier reported that in Uttar Pradesh, the information and PR department signed a contract with ANI, a few months after Yogi Adityanath became chief minister in 2017. In Rajasthan, two officials confirmed that the former Ashok Gehlot government had also signed a “PR package” with ANI. ANI also has short-term deals with companies and union ministries, according to two former employees.

Newslaundry had also learned that ANI assigns one person to prepare a “list” of news items to periodically send to all clients – individuals and state governments. These lists contain “web links of news items picked up by various media houses”.

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