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| The end seems to have come swiftlyfor Niti Central though not without confusion. |
February 7, 2016, NewsCrunch
Niti Central, the right-wing news and commentary site, which promised to be right and bold seems to have ended its operation.
If you go to the website Niti Central, you will find an announcement it has been retired since Jan 31, 2016.
The once high-profile news website seems to have declined rapidly in its last days.
It took almost a week for anyone to take note that it had perished.
Scroll did an article on Sunday saying Niti Central was dead. And it finally became a trending topic, to repeat, seven days, after it had put up the retirement notice.
The end seems to have come swiftly though not without confusion.
Its CEO Shashi Shekar tweeted on January 31 giving links to three latest articles on Niti Central. If he had any clue of the impending doom he showed no sign of it.
In his timeline since, he is yet to acknowledge or explain the end of Niti Central.
To add to the confusion, parts of the website continue to live. The sketchy news part of the website is still getting frequent updates. The off-stumped section, which deep links to articles on other news websites, continues.
The off-stump twitter account is active. The twitter feed of @NitiCentral also continues with a new user name - Off-stumped Report.
The main meat of the website, partisan opinions, seems to have ended. A skeletal staff seems to be vested with the task of keeping the brand alive.
Niti Central was founded in 2012 by Internet entrepreneur Rajesh Jain, an ardent fan of PM Modi.
It was promoted as the "voice of the Neo-Middle Class in India" that would advocate Indian national interest. The site was initially run by Kanchan Gupta, a senior journalist from the Pioneer, another pro-BJP publication.
He left Niti Central to become the Editorial Director of NitiDigital.
IITs unfortunately have no track record of incubating truly disruptive innovations. Saying this as an IITian @sudiptok1502@NitiCentral— Shashi Shekhar (@shashidigital) January 31, 2016
On why the clamour for "Net Neutrality" as critical for Startup India and Digital India is a bogus argument https://t.co/9GuXnooywS— Shashi Shekhar (@shashidigital) January 31, 2016
My sunday OpEd on why India is unlikely to produce a Google or Appple anytime soon https://t.co/9GuXnooywS— Shashi Shekhar (@shashidigital) January 31, 2016