I&B Ministry

Net Neutrality: Reactions from the consumers provide deep insights

Published

10 years ago

June 14, 2016

NEW DELHI: Issues relating to OTT and net neutrality have been in the news for almost two years now and the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI), which had earlier issued a paper on Over-the-top (OTT) apps, came out with a paper on Net Neutrality on 30 May 2016.

TRAI’s frequent revisiting of the Net Neutrality issue highlights the fact that the regulator is under immense pressure from various stakeholders with diverse interests. TRAI had first issued a consultation paper over 18 months back and had also passed an order — hotly contested by telecom companies— banning differential pricing floated by some telcos recently, which had sounded the death gong for Facebook’s FreeBasic in India.

However as the TRAI website is seen generally only by those in the broadcasting or telecom sectors, a brief summary of TRAI’s pre-consultation paper has been placed on the mygov.in so that the general public can react and send in their feedbacks.

As a result, over 73,000 posts have already come on this site from the general public who have unanimously supported net neutrality. Some have gone to the extent of asking why TRAI or the government should ask this question.

Though indiantelevision.com firmly believes that at times the debate in India over Net Neutrality has been shrill and has clouded real and serious aspects of neutrality, there are some interesting feedbacks as well that indicate how general Indians view Net Neutrality.

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For example, one writer says: “TRAI focus should be broadband speed minimum 50MBps Download/ 25MBps Upload. There should be no pollution, so focus on fiber/copper with speeds of up to 10GBps (ten GBps) and ensure that latency is very low, connectivity is much better (speed and latency are different).”

The same respondent points out that companies are offering 5GB on 4Mbps for high prices up to Rs 900 and data caps should be removed or have minimum of 1TBps. He has said that lease lines should be made affordable with customer support.

Says another respondent: “I cannot imagine an India as net partial with a discriminatory telecom structure not letting me call my kin freely, surf net with discrimination. The Governments needs to recall and emulate Dr Ambedkar’s ideas, the esteemed voice of freedom and non-discrimination of free India.”

Yet another individual says: “In the name of neutrality. Let us not stop access of net to one billion Indians. Many pay phone/net data bills (simply by transferring data) higher than electricity bills (which is consuming energy, which is costlier to produce). Let the government ensure that data service is affordable to all.”

Another consumer says, “We want freedom to choose and not Internet Service Provider choosing for us. There is also stress on removing corruption which can be done by removing interest on security deposit, seven days extra charge after disconnection refund, towers on house and low heights.”

Yet another respondent commented: “Without net neutrality, internet would go into the hands of people who can pay the ISPs to give their websites for cheaper price. This will hamper start-ups and other small players who cannot afford to pay the ISPs. For a thriving economy, it is important to have competing players in market. In the absence of net neutrality, this competition will be disrupted and monopoly will be established — which is not good for the consumers.”

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But the responses are not confined to just plain feedbacks, and some people have also tried to support their theories and assertions.

A respondent has attached a presentation with diagrams to say, “Internet traffic and congestion on network problem can be sorted out by dividing the network into logistic small segments. These small logic segments can have their unique set of protocols, which when connected with the large network enable it to tackle with security and cyber issues as well as enable the large network to tackle the Internet traffic and congestion issues.

“The logical small segments should be designed and implemented in way so that they can be extended with the increase of customers as well as data demand on that network. The core of the large network can be designed/assembled in a way that its data limitations can be extended with demand (Same technique can be apply on the logistic small networks).”

The person, who seems to have some understanding of technology and its functioning, adds that designing/assembling and implementation of smart networking system will lead to a major step for providing a standard Internet facility to the individuals, having fixed rate data plan with standard accessibility and speed of the Internet facility. The diagrams show one of a road where the light poles have small boxes to pass the Internet signal from one to the next.

Incidentally, the original pre-consultation paper on net neutrality issued by TRAI on 30 May 2016 is available at http://www.trai.gov.in/Content/ConDis/20775_0.aspx on the regulator’s website does not still have any comments uploaded on the issue. The last date for submission of comments is 21 June 2016.

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I&B Ministry

I&B’s 2025 report card: Lights, camera, action — and Rs 4,334 crore

Published

1 month ago

January 1, 2026

indiantelevision.com Team

NEW DELHI: If 2025 was India’s year to make waves, the ministry of information and broadcasting (I&B) was its chief surfboard maker. Prime minister Narendra Modi’s call to “create in India, create for the world” wasn’t just ministerial hot air—it triggered a tsunami of creative dealmaking that swept from Melbourne to Madrid, generating Rs 4,334 crores in potential business discussions and putting Indian creators on every continent’s radar.

The centrepiece was Waves 2025, the World Audio Visual and Entertainment Summit, which drew over 90 countries, 10,000 delegates, and roughly 1 lakh punters through its doors. Modi himself dropped by to glad-hand young creators, describing the event as a “wave of culture, creativity and universal connectivity”—and for once, the hyperbole wasn’t entirely unwarranted.

The summit’s CreatoSphere platform, which sounds like something from a sci-fi novel but is actually a hub for film, VFX, animation, gaming, and digital media, launched the Create in India Challenges. Season one attracted over 1 lakh entries from more than 60 countries across 33 categories. Winners weren’t just handed certificates and sent packing—they performed at Melbourne, exhibited at Tokyo Game Show, and pitched at Toronto International Film Festival. I&B minister Ashwini Vaishnav handed out gongs to 150 creators, cementing the government’s commitment to nurturing what it calls the “creative economy.”

WaveX, the startup arm, proved equally industrious. It coaxed over 200 startups into its embrace, enabled 30 to pitch to Microsoft, Amazon, and Lumikai, and somehow got two of its charges—VYGR News and VIVA Technologies—onto Shark Tank India, where they presumably dodged the usual mauling. The initiative’s KalaaSetu and BhashaSetu challenges, focused on AI-driven video generation and real-time translation respectively, attracted over 100 startups and picked ten for collaboration with government media units.

Waves Bazaar, the “craft-to-commerce” global e-marketplace, went on a roadshow between August and December, hitting 12 international events across four continents and four domestic jamborees. The numbers are eye-watering: over 9,000 B2B meetings, 10 memoranda of understanding signed, three more proposed, and the launch of creative corridors with Japan, Korea, and Australia. The ministry claims Rs 4,334 crores in potential deals—potential being the operative word, though in India’s booming content market, optimism often precedes reality by only a few quarters.

On the bricks-and-mortar front, the Indian Institute of Creative Technology opened its temporary Mumbai campus in July with Rs 391.15 crores in budgetary support. The public-private partnership with Ficci and CII has enrolled over 100 students across 18 courses, incubated eight startups, and signed memoranda with Google, Meta, Nvidia, Microsoft, Apple, Adobe, and WPP—a who’s who of tech giants keen to tap India’s creative reserves. A permanent 10 acre campus at Film City, Goregaon, complete with an immersive AR/VR/XR studio, is in the works.

Elsewhere, the ministry set up a Live Events Development Cell to position India’s concert economy as a growth driver. A single-window clearance system is being built on the India Cine Hub platform to expedite permissions for fire, traffic, and municipal approvals—addressing the red-tape nightmares that have long plagued event organisers. Meanwhile, an inter-ministerial committee is tackling digital piracy, that perennial thorn in the creative economy’s side.

State broadcaster Doordarshan snagged the Election Commission’s media award for voter awareness during the 2024 Lok Sabha elections, presented by the president on National Voters’ Day. Community radio added 22 new stations, bringing the total to 551, with workshops and a national sammelan held during Waves to strengthen local broadcasting.

The 56th International Film Festival of India in Goa screened over 240 films from 81 countries, threw in the country’s first AI Film Festival, and staged a grand parade through Panaji that turned the event into a street-level celebration. The accompanying Waves Film Bazaar drew over 2,500 delegates from 40-plus countries and showcased 320 projects—making it one of South Asia’s largest film markets.

The Central Board of Film Certification modernised too, launching a multilingual certification module that allows multiple language versions under a single application, and mandating 50 per cent women’s participation on examining and revising committees. Digital signatures replaced wet ink, and certificates became downloadable—small victories in the fight against bureaucratic inertia.

India’s I&B ministry ended 2025 having turned content creation into something resembling an industrial policy. Whether Rs 4,334 crores in “potential” business materialises remains to be seen, but the ministry has built the infrastructure, corralled the startups, and put Indian creators on international stages. As Modi might say, the wave has been ridden. Now comes the hard part: keeping the momentum going when the cameras stop rolling.

I&B Ministry

Centre drafts OTT rules to boost access for hearing disabled

Published

2 months ago

December 12, 2025

indiantelevision.com Team

MUMBAI: The Centre has inched closer to making India’s streaming universe easier to watch, hear and enjoy for everyone. The Ministry of Information and Broadcasting has released draft guidelines that aim to standardise accessibility on OTT platforms, ensuring that viewers with hearing and visual impairments are no longer left out of the country’s digital entertainment boom.

Issued on 7 October and now open for public consultation, the draft rules arrive with constitutional and global backing. Minister of State for Information and Broadcasting L. Murugan told the Rajya Sabha that the framework draws from Article 14, the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities and the Rights of Persons with Disabilities Act, 2016. It also mirrors the Code of Ethics under the IT Rules, 2021.

At the heart of the proposal is a two-phase rollout of mandatory accessibility tools such as same-language closed captions and audio descriptions. The ministry said penalties and enforcement steps will be shaped after the consultation, but compliance will be tracked through progressive targets for OTT content libraries.

Parliament was also reminded that the broadcast sector has walked this path before. In 2019, the government notified accessibility standards for television programming, starting with Prasar Bharati and eventually extending them to private broadcasters.

With OTT viewership climbing across urban and small-town India, the draft rules attempt to bring streaming giants in step with a wider vision of inclusive media. The government hopes the move will help millions of Indians with disabilities press play without barriers.

I&B Ministry

News broadcasters push back as MIB’s landing page proposal may create turbulence

Published

2 months ago

December 9, 2025

indiantelevision.com Team

MUMBAI: India’s broadcast heavyweights have mounted a firm resistance to the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting’s proposed rule change on landing pages, arguing that the plan is legally shaky, technically confused and commercially stacked against the industry.

News18, NDTV, Times Now and other major networks have told the Ministry that the amendment deserves to be scrapped altogether. Their submissions note that the proposal attempts to revive a measurement method that the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India had already studied and rejected in 2018 for being unreliable. With the issue currently before the Supreme Court, broadcasters say any fresh intervention now breaches basic principles of administrative fairness.

At the heart of the dispute lies the belief that landing page viewership is somehow suspicious. Broadcasters counter this view, insisting that landing pages act as legitimate promotional real estate, no different from a newspaper jacket or a supermarket’s prime shelf. When a TV set turns on and a viewer decides either to stay or switch away, they argue that this choice represents genuine viewing behaviour, not inflated numbers.

Removing first impressions, they warn, would wipe out real audience actions and twist the ratings picture. TRAI had raised the same concern in 2018, concluding that genuine impressions would be wrongly filtered out.

Industry bodies have added their voice to the chorus. The All India Digital Cable Federation has urged the Ministry to leave current practice intact, while several regional and smaller broadcasters have filed similar objections. The opposition, they say, stretches far beyond a few big brands.

With the sector unified in its stance, broadcasters have urged the Ministry to withdraw the proposal and preserve the current ratings framework. Only then, they argue, can India’s TV market retain a fair contest, clear metrics and a true reflection of what viewers actually choose to watch.