Despite fears that India's English-language dailies were losing ground, the Times of India has seized on new Indian Readership Survey figures to support growing dominance.

The Bennett, Coleman & Co publication reported a gain in "average issue readership" of 32,000 between the second and third quarters of 2019, to 58.2 lakh (5.82 million) bigger, it says than its next three (general English) rivals combined.

Times Group's Economic Times (1.08 million) and Mumbai Mirror (800,000) also make the top five, the Mirror being only single edition title to do so.

The paper quotes IRS readership of 3.24 million for the Hindustan Times, and 1.87 million for The Hindu, putting them in second and third places respectively, with ABP's The Telegraph (490,000) at number six.

The Mumbai Mirror said readership of the Times of India in Mumbai at 129,000, Bangalore of 520,000, and Chennai at 280,000, made it the market leader in those cities, modestly adding that IRS figures for Pune and Ahmedabad showed "there is really no competition to TOI".

Pictured: The Mumbai Mirror charts its "All-India Top Five"