Dainik Bhaskar Group releases biography of Ramesh Chandra Agarwal

The book, The Man Who Created The Dainik Bhaskar Group, has been authored by Bharathi Pradhan, and was launched in Bhopal at the hands of the chief minister of Madhya Pradesh, Kamal Nath in the presence of ex-chief Minister Shri Shivraj Singh Chouhan and journalist Rajat Sharma.

Pradhan, a bestselling author, has published Anything But Khamosh, biography of actor-politician Shatrughan Sinha, the much-acclaimed Priyanka Chopra: The Dark Horse and has co-written Turbulence & Triumph: The Modi Years.

In her latest book on Ramesh Chandra Agarwal, the author details the awe-inspiring life of the visionary, describing him as a champion with ‘an unparalleled taste for risk-taking and a thirst for venturing into the unknown,’ and as the man ‘who gave the Hindi newspaper a hitherto unknown respect’.

The author charts his journey of how in 35 short years, Agarwal turned a modest family-owned newspaper into the prime choice of readers in 12 states, and built a business empire with a turnover of more than Rs 5,000-crore. The wholesome story of the media baron who built the No 1 newspaper in the country was written after meeting and interviewing over 40 different personalities who contributed personal nuggets on the man behind the businessman and what made his life such an inspirational success story. An array of renowned personalities that include the chairman of the Aditya Birla Group Kumar Mangalam Birla; the chief minister of Madhya Pradesh, Shri Kamal Nath; former chief minister of Madhya Pradesh Shivraj Singh Chouhan; former chief minister of Madhya Pradesh Digvijaya Singh; stock market maven Rakesh Jhunjhunwala and chief election commissioner Sunil Arora, have embellished the book with their perceptive comments and hitherto-unknown stories.

The foreword of the book has been written by the globally renowned mystic Jaggi Vasudev, fondly known as Sadhguru. “At a time when this nation was still lumbering under the colonial cross of double standards for English language and regional language news publications, this man boldly subverted the dominant paradigm, and for this we owe him credit and admiration. In my personal interactions, I saw a gentle but astute man and mind. This retelling of his life will certainly inspire many others,” writes Sadhguru.

Commenting on the book, the author said, “It gave me great pleasure to write this book, because it was fascinating to do an inside story of how Agarwal went into state after state and, facing odds that would’ve made a weaker man do a U-turn and go back home, slayed the reigning No 1 everywhere to establish DB as the premier newspaper of the country. It reads like a fairy tale, a page-turner with intriguing stories that will give inspiration to the reader and draw admiration from him. It is a book that will appeal across the board and find a connect with every reader.”