No news is good news! (unless it is IT news)

Wonder what's happening on the political front! Have you noticed the front pages of the leading dailies lately? They seem to be transforming themselves into tabloids with feature articles taking up more space. Compared to earlier days, news items are generally giving way to those newer cousins.

For almost a lifetime, one has been used to seeing some political event dominate the front page. So much so that, absence of such news almost makes you feel that there is no news! Is no news good news after all?

Is there nothing for the opposition to rake up? Going by what's not happening, it might appear so. So the good news may be that the opposition has really become responsible! Which would therefore mean that the government is really doing good things. And that should be real good news. So why is all this good news not getting covered by the dailies?

Does it mean that our press covers mostly what is reported-either by the government or by the opposition? That, if it were true, would be a sad development. Of course, the other way to look at it would be that the press has matured and attaches only as much value to political news as is due, which again is good news!

May be the opposition is so mired in its own problems that it is unable to play the watchdog role it is supposed to. That positively would be bad news! So will some one find out the real stuff.

Unlike the earlier times, there is not much of a dissenting voice within the government either. Mamta did kindle a ray of hope lately of some action by opposing the petroleum price hike. But she hardly proved a match to Jayalalitha. This, as well as the fact that the government has managed to quickly handle the situation, well, both are good news. You definitely don't want a government weakened from within. And you don't want a government incapable of conducting itself well.

Most of the bad news has been provided by cricket lately. (Well, with political news conspicuous by its absence, something has to be there to fill in.) But cricket hasn't really matched politics in consistency. Hogging front page coverage isn't easy, you see. 

The real bad news in all this is that good news doesn't seem to be as saleable as bad news. Wars, strikes, murders, rapes and dacoities get much more coverage than good news. I am sure in all these, especially law and order related news, the idea is to keep the law keepers on their toes. Hope some good will come out of that.

So where is all the printable good news? The sports page has seldom brought any cheer. Indian wins a few and loses many a far between. If you are looking at the sports page you better have an international perspective.

Looks like the stock exchange is our only hope. That's one place people consistently look towards in the hope of good news. (Not that the stock exchanges itself has a consistent track record.) Since the stock exchange has for long been associated with speculation, I guess it is only natural for people to speculate on expectation of good news. The newspapers probably know this and devote a full two pages (mostly) to stock price updates. Well, some cheer after all!

The business section has of course grown in stature over the years. Ever since 'globalization' and 'liberalization' became buzz words (and rather clicked) in India, people have tended to look at the business pages with hopes of good news with greater seriousness tan ever before.

And ever since, IT has been kind of at the forefront of business news. For one, there is a lot of new stuff happening in IT. Add to it the fact that some of our IT companies were the first to make it big on Nasdaq. Even from an employment perspective, IT has emerged as the single largest industry with growth prospects. No wonder, all hopes of good news are pinned on this sector.

The fact that even politicians today have realized its potential is even better news. After all they are supposed to run this country. So they better know what is good for us and what is not. Even a Laloo Yadav and Rabri want to be known as IT savvy politicians. (They actually visited India Internet world on their own.)

Maybe, the diminishing presence of political news on the front pages is part of a larger process. And feature articles are just filling in a temporary need, till IT finally takes center stage in our lives and moves to the front pages with good news of how it is making life better for the common man.

The industrial revolution has done its bit long ago. It is for IT to build on it and create more opportunities for man. Fortunately IT has a self-sustaining character. The speed with which it destroys the old and moves towards the new will make sure that opportunity creation is a never ending and growing process.

It is therefore bound to touch more and more lives in some way or the other. Hopefully in a positive way.

The front pages are preparing themselves for the IT world of tomorrow. Don't be overly concerned with lack of news on these pages. No (political) news may actually be good news.

Sumit Sharma is Associate VP, Microland and the author of the book titled `The Corporate Circus.'