Volleying through the Eastern Landspace
IT'S been 16 years since Riniki Bhuyan Sharma launched News Live, a pathbreaking enterprise that was essential to not just the growing industrial landscape of Oxom but the cultural, political and linguistic assertion of a region long neglected. The fairly lone walk that involved building sustainable institutions and industrial units that could fulfil the needs and aspirations of her people, also meant equipping herself with the requisite qualifications, beginning with a degree in Law from Guwahati’s prestigious Government Law College. The doctrine she etched for herself on every milestone she passed would be simple: “On the road you take, be deaf and never look back.”
A tennis player who had represented her state at the national level, she had learnt early in life that it was only pure determination and unshakeable grit that could bring home the trophy. It was in 2008 that News Live was launched, in a market that was uncertain in terms of revenue and earnings, but reassured by an audience that would watch, listen and critique. The content would be all-encompassing, from politics to performing arts, from agriculture to literature. The aim was simple: to reach out to the masses and create a platform that could amplify the voices of those who were not till then heard the way they should have been.
THE sincerity of purpose was to pay off, with News Live gradually sprouting its branches, to eventually form a canopy of three independent television channels, to which were added an Oxomiya daily newspaper, a monthly Oxomiya magazine and an online news channel. The conglomerate makes up the media wing of Pride East Entertainments Pvt Ltd, of which Riniki Bhuyan Sharma is Chairperson and Managing Director.
There would a ring to PEEPL that people would resonate with. As the years passed, it would put out a helping hand to those who needed it most. Sneha Bandhan would be built for orphans, while Udayachal would reach out to the elderly and specially-abled children. There would be new journeys, into territories that were till then uncharted for the group, including the acquisition of two tea estates, and the building of Vaani Greens, a luxury resort in Kaziranga. The milestones are still being etched. And this is Riniki Bhuyan Sharma’s journey so far…