Beset by dubious business acumen from the outset, and beholden to those who financed it, the agency failed to obtain substantial support from Indian-owned press and hence closed down in 1935.
[1] Sadanand had worked for API and left that arm of the Reuters monopoly soon after being dismayed by government suppression of reportage concerning the Jallianwala Bagh massacre of 1919.
One difficulty that would have to be surmounted, as the Chronicle noted, was that among all the various nationalist factions there was no common "Indian viewpoint"; Israel describes the extant monopoly as "efficient, dependable, and generally accurate".
[13] A primary stimulus in the formation and growth of the nationalist-supporting FPI was probably the "rupee ratio" debate[14] that pitted the colonial government against Indian nationalists.
[15] Any outcome of the debate would affect business[citation needed] but Israel also says that It was clear from the beginning that the long term future of the FPI was going to be Sadanand's problem; and the willingness of his affluent backers to continue more than marginal philanthropy would depend on his success in becoming a stable competitor in the professional press world.
[17] The Bulletin was a short-lived affair that had become a supplement to the Advocate of India Sunday newspaper as early as 1926, due to the inability to finance it as a standalone publication.
Sadanand was an affluent man and could afford to take risks, which was evidenced by his agency frequently forfeiting security deposits in acts of defiance, but the combined effects of a lack of general support, the opposition of the government of the British Raj and the vested interests of established news media caused it to close in 1935.
[6] The FPI was revived in 1945 and aimed then to provide feeds of international news to the Indian press, for which purpose it established correspondents in Batavia, Cairo, London, Nanking, New York and Singapore.
The FPI had angered Sardar Patel, the Home Minister, by circulating a news story, on the day after independence of India, that revealed unauthorised details of military movements.