As Indian TV channels aired nonstop coverage of Vladimir Putin’s visit to India, the Russian premier today launched the Indian arm of the Russian state–funded television network Russia Today (RT). 

Backed by “a team of over a hundred”, RT India ranks as “arguably the biggest overseas venture” undertaken by Russia Today (RT), according to The Indian Express. This move comes three years after the European Union banned RT, following the start of the Russia-Ukraine War in 2022.  

According to Business Standard, the channel’s “state-of-the-art media studio” is located in Noida’s Film City, and it will “roll out four daily news bulletins in English”. Meanwhile, according to The Indian Express, RT India launched “from a temporary studio created at a five-star hotel in New Delhi.” On its X account, the channel claimed that it will broadcast the news from “a state-of-the-art studio complex in New Delhi.” 

RT India “promises to spotlight the powerhouse partnership between India and Russia and their growing influence in a multipolar world.” 

Runjhun Sharma, Director of News at RT India, further explained the channel’s objective when she said, “India has been waiting for a long time for the world media to be able to talk about it without a biased Western filter.”

It’s a point RTI India CEO Ashok Bagaria reiterated, who claimed that the channel will “present an alternative narrative” to the “one-sided narrative being presented by Western media outlets.” 

According to The Indian Express, officials in the Information and Broadcasting (I&B) Ministry noted that “since RT is already telecast in India over other networks, and has a pact with state broadcaster Prasar Bharati, it didn’t need a separate licence to operate here.” What it did require, however, were “uplinking and downlinking permissions” from the Ministry of External Affairs, Ministry of Home Affairs, and I&B Ministry, which they received.  

Talks for the launch of RT India first began with a meeting between Russian First Deputy Prime Minister Denis Manturov and External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar in Moscow in August during an intergovernmental meet, according to The Indian Express. 

Speaking on the need to launch RT India, Manturov said in August: “This will allow detailed coverage of events in Russian-Indian relations as well as objectively reflect the growing role of our countries in the modern multipolar world.”  

The parent channel RT was launched in 2005 as part of The Kremlin’s public relations effort to improve the country’s image abroad and challenge global stereotypes about Russia, which is also reflected in the tagline of RT India: “Not Anti-Western… Just Not Western”. 

The channel currently broadcasts in Russian, English, Arabic, and Spanish. Its French and German services were shut down in 2023, and the year before, it was forced to discontinue RT America.

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