MD KHALID HASANFounder of Aapka Times Published On: Wednesday, June 22, 2016 Views 3706

Aapka Times is a youth-oriented online news portal which covers national affairs with a special focus on Indian Universities and Colleges. Aapka Times has the privilege to be the only news portal which covers news across the Universities and Colleges. We also provide a strong platform for students to nurture their journalism skills. We have been making constant endeavours of partnering with colleges fests. A recent step is a partnership with the annual feasts of Shri Ram College of Commerce (SRCC), Miranda House, JamiaHamdard University, JamiaMilliaIslamia University, Indira Gandhi Delhi Technical University for Women (IGDTUW) and much more. Our network is growing exponentially. Moreover, our chain of reporters enables us to catch campus news in an instant. Besides this, we tap every big news as well as that news which is lagging behind and is not picked up by others. We believe in creating awareness and showing the true colors of news.

I an interest in writing since childhood. I’ve always been interested in events happening around me. Due to this interest, I had an idea to initiate an independent news portal. However, I didn’t have a clear picture of how to begin. But as fate would have it, a call from a friend who was a reporter in a reputed newspaper, followed by long hours of the conversation wherein we discussed the idea and all the Knitty gritty involved in the same, was the beginning of Aapka Times. Hence, I came up with a wonderful plan of not only creating a news portal but also of encouraging students to hone their writing talents and provide them with a platform to showcase their talent. On December 8, 2013, we launched our news portal.

I believe that nothing is unachievable. An undying faith will help us make efforts to achieve what we want, and success is guaranteed.

Initially, we needed a huge amount of money to start the news portal as charges of website designers were pretty high which was almost out of our budget. Instead, I started learning online how to create websites for news portals and learnt to design a website and designed it myself.

I have an excellent team of people who are making constant efforts for Aapka Times on a personal level. No challenge is big enough as long as I have the support of those people.

We have not actively looked out for funding from investors.We started with a limited amount that came from personal savings and monetary support from friends.

We hire our team members selectively and almost all of our team members have been with our organization from colleges. We create a progressive and productive environment for our team members where they have fun while learning. We also conduct regularly scheduled activities and meeting with our teams, which include team building exercises and stress release activities that also keeps them fresh and aligned with company goals.

Belief, determination and communication skills

Facebook, WordPress, Twitter, Plagiarism Checker

I have a problem-solving attitude. This helps me in being productive.

I wish to develop my self- confidence.

• One tip to success

Dream, and dare to follow it. Never stop yourself from taking a step thinking it’s too late- it’s not!

• One mistake you believe every individual must avoid

Being unprofessional. Letting personal life affect professional life and procrastination are the biggest enemies of a business person.

• One most important lesson that you have learnt till now

Always try to keep intelligent and skilled people in the team instead of unskilled friends and relatives

Our plan is to connect all the universities and colleges of India through Aapka Times and recruit campus reporters in each and every college and make it to India’s top youth-oriented website. We have a plan to set up university chapters in different universities to start regular social activities as well as campaigns on various social issues. We have planned to launch our printed newspaper in other cities of India too including Mumbai, Kolkata, Bangalore, Bhopal, Hyderabad and Patna. In the next 3 years, we are also planning to hold training sessions and online journalism related workshops, where our main goal would be to acquaint students with online journalism, its opportunities, and demands, and to encourage them to see online journalism as a new avenue of journalism where they can make their career. We would make them learn the nuances and techniques of news reporting. We would also provide internships to students across different universities in India. Moreover, we are planning to get in touch with all the central universities, IITs, IIMs, national schools of laws, dramas, design etc.

I am an engineering student. If I had a chance to go back in time, I would be more expressive about my interests and study arts or business.

1. JamiaMillia University campus 2.Pune 3. Shimla

Great minds must be ready not only to take opportunities but to make them too