Asian News International  Asian News International (ANI) is an Indian news agency based in New Delhi that provides syndicated multimedia news feed to multiple news-bureaus in India and beyond. Established by Prem Prakash, it was the first agency in India to syndicate video news. , it is the biggest news agency in India. Prem started his career in the field of photography, before being employed by Visnews (as well as Reuters) as a photojournalist, where he went on to cover some of the most significant historical events in post-Independence India. He was a significant figure in the domain of news and documentary film-making in the 1970s—commanding considerable clout among foreign journalists and film-makers—and had been conferred with the MBE. ANI was established in 1971 (preceded by TVNF, which was India's first television news feature agency) and leveraged a host of tactics from the employing of numerous ex-bureaucrats (along with their kith and kin) at prime positions to cordialising his familial connections with I. K. Gujral, (the then minister of Information and Broadcasting) in a quest to gain influence within the Government. TVNF was explicitly asked by Indira Gandhi to showcase a positive image of India, and monopolized the sector, producing numerous science-oriented films for Doordarshan, the state broadcaster. Smita Prakash, an alumna of Indian Institute of Mass Communication joined ANI in around 1986 as an intern and was later inducted as a full-time employee. Daughter of Inna Ramamohan Rao, former director of the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting, she married Prem's son Sanjiv in 1988 and furthered ANI's access within the government. For years along, ANI effectively served as an external publicity division of Ministry of External Affairs, showing the Army in a positive light and suppressing news about any internal discontent; the private nature of the organisation gave an air of non-partisan legitimacy to their videos. During the peak-spans of militancy in Kashmir Conflict, ANI was the near-sole purveyor of video-footage, esp. with Rao having been recruited as the media advisor to the state. In 1993, Reuters purchased a stake in ANI, which was allowed to exert a complete monopoly over the Reuters feed; Prem's connections with Peter Job helped the cause. Also, along the 90s, Sanjiv had a meteoric rise through the ranks (along with Smita) and his shrewd managerial instincts increasingly divorced journalism from the organisation's goals.