information:classification, linguistic:voice_change, stylistic:style_transfer, information:highlighting, structural:summarization
India

The first newspaper of India, Hicky's Bengal Gazette, was published on 29 January 1780. This first effort at journalism enjoyed only a short stint yet it was a momentous development, as it gave birth to modern journalism in India. Following Hicky's efforts which had to be shut down just within two years of circulation, several English newspapers started publication in the aftermath. Most of them enjoyed a circulation figure of about 400 and were weeklies giving personal news items and classified advertisements about a variety of products. Later on, in the 1800s, English newspapers were started by Indian publishers with English-speaking Indians as the target audience. During that era vast differences in language was a major problem in facilitating smooth communication among the people of the country. This is because they hardly knew the languages prevalent in other parts of this vast land. However, English became a lingua franca across the country. Notable among this breed is the one named 'Bengal Gazette' started by Gangadhar Bhattacharyya in 1816.