India, Oct. 6 -- Strange, isn't it? We live in an age where the word news has become the most misleading of all words. News once meant the truth. You bought your morning paper or switched on your TV set, and you knew what you were getting was facts. Uncomfortable sometimes, yes, but truth nonetheless. Today? Well, today, truth comes packaged, ribboned, and served with the flavour of whoever is paying the bill.

Which is why, as TV channels get bought over by political masters, the truth has quietly shifted. It has packed its little suitcase, left the TV studios, and sneaked into the laptops and mobile phones of millions. There, in small YouTube channels, in independent podcasts, in the determined voices of individuals who don't have billi...