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Category: I&B Ministry

  • Smriti Irani gets additional charge as MIB minister

    NEW DELHI: Actor-turned politician Smriti Zubin Irani has been given the additional charge of the information and broadcasting ministry following the resignation of M Venkaiah Naidu who has been nominated for the post of the country’s vice-president.

    Irani will hold this charge in addition to her main ministry, textiles. Welcoming her after the announcement was made by the prime minister Narendra Modi, minister of state Rajyavardhan Rathore tweeted: “Delighted to welcome the sharp, erudite smt. @smritiirani to @mib_india. Looking fwd to working with her in the ministry.”

    Nominated to the Rajya Sabha from Gujarat, Irani had first joined Modi’s  cabinet as Human Resource Development Minister but had been shifted to Textiles in a cabinet reshuffle.

    Irani joined the Bharatiya Janata Party in 2003. She became the vice-president of the Maharashtra Youth Wing in 2004.In the 2004 general elections for the 14th Lok Sabha, she contested unsuccessfully against Kapil Sibal from the Chandni Chowk constituency in Delhi. She was nominated as executive member of the central committee of the BJP. In early 2010, Irani was appointed National Secretary of BJP and on 24 June, she was appointed All India President of the BJP’s women’s wing, BJP Mahila Morcha.

    Irani contested the 2014 general elections against Rahul Gandhi in Amethi and lost. On 26 May 2014, Modi appointed her as the minister of human resource development in his cabinet. Her appointment was criticised by many people owing to her lack of formal higher education.

    Irani was born in Delhi to a Bengali mother and a Punjabi father, Ajay Kumar Malhotra. She is the eldest of three sisters. She has been a part of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) from childhood as her grandfather was an RSS swayamsevak and her mother a member of Jana Sangh.

    Irani was one of the finalists of the beauty pageant Miss India 1998, along with Gauri Pradhan Tejwani. In 1998, Irani appeared in a song “Boliyan” of the album “Saawan Mein Lag Gayi Aag” with Mika Singh. 

    In 2008, Irani along with Sakshi Tanwar hosted the show Yeh Hai Jalwa, a dance based reality show featuring celebrities along with their troops on 9X. In the same year she also produced another show on Zee TV, Waaris which ended in 2009. In 2009, she appeared in a comedy show Maniben.com, aired on SAB TV. She also co-produced the show in collaboration with Contiloe Entertainment. In 2012, she worked in Bengali movie Amrita.

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    Venkaiah Naidu is NDA nominee for India’s vice-president

  • Venkaiah Naidu is NDA nominee for India’s vice-president

    NEW DELHI: Information and broadcasting minister M Venkaiah Naidu has been named as the ruling National Democratic Alliance’s candidate for becoming the vice-president of India. The opposition has already announced the senior politician Gopal Das Gandhi as its candidate.

    A Rajya Sabha member of the Bharatiya Janata Party from Rajasthan (elected in May last year), Naidu is also the minister of housing and urban poverty alleviation.

    Born on 1 July 1949, Naidu began his career as a student leader in Andhra University in the early seventies. A senior member of the party, he has also been the national president from 2002 to 2004. Earlier, he was the union cabinet minister for rural development in the Atal Bihari Vajpayee government.

    He was elected as an MLA to the Andhra Pradesh Legislative Assembly twice from Udayagiri constituency in Nellore district, in 1978 and 1983. After having served in various organisational posts of the BJP at the state and national level, he was elected as a member of the Rajya Sabha from Karnataka in 1998. He has since been re-elected twice — in 2004 and 2010 — from Karnataka.

    He served as the party spokesperson from 1996 to 2000, bringing to the job his panache for quirky alliterations and similes. Unlike most politicians from southern India, Naidu made an effort to master Hindi, going on to address public rallies in northern India.

    After the NDA victory in the 1999 general elections, he became the union cabinet Minister for rural development in the government headed by Vajpayee. He was known for pushing for reforms in Rural development and for the many schemes introduced during this period such as the ‘Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojana.

    He succeeded Jana Krishnamurthy as the National President of the Bharatiya Janata Party in 2002. On 28 January 2004, he was elected unopposed for a full three-year term. After the defeat of the BJP led NDA in the 2004 general elections, he resigned from his post on 18 October 2004 and was succeeded by L.K. Advani.

    However, he has remained in the forefront of the BJP as one of its senior vice-presidents and an important campaigner. Naidu raised special status to Andhra Pradesh issue in Rajya Sabha (as opposition member in February 2014) and demanded special category state status to AP. The then prime minister had agreed to it, though it was not included in the AP Reorganisation Act-2014.

    Following the victory of the BJP in the 2014 general elections, he has sworn as the Minister for Urban Development and Parliamentary Affairs on 26 May 2014. Naidu is also involved with the Swarna Bharath Trust, a social service organisation founded by him in Nellore. The trust runs a school for poor, orphaned and special-needs children and imparts self-employment training programmes especially for women and youth.

    Born at Chavatapalem in the Nellore district, he completed schooling from V R High School, Nellore, and pursued his bachelor’s degree in politics and diplomatic studies from V R College. Later, he acquired a bachelor’s degree in law with a specialisation in international law from Andhra University College of Law, Visakhapatnam. He was a swayamsevak in the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh and joined Akhil Bhartiya Vidyarthi Parishad during his college days.He was elected as the president of the students union of colleges affiliated to the Andhra University. He came into spotlight for his prominent role in the Jai Andhra Movement of 1972. While K Venkata Ratnam led the movement from Vijayawada, Naidu took active part in the agitation in Nellore, until it was called off a year later.

    In 1974, he became the convener of the anti-corruption Jayaprakash Narayan Chhatra Sangharsh Samiti of Andhra Pradesh. He took to streets in protest against the emergency and was imprisoned. From 1977–80, he was president of its youth wing.

  • Prasar to distribute 1 mn free STBs, Chhattisgarh channel plan reiterated

    MUMBAI: Pubcaster Prasar Bharati, in an attempt to reach out to people in the “media dark” region, may be distributing for free around a million direct- to-home (DTH) set-top boxes in Naxal-hit areas of India an official has said.

    Besides a dedicated DD channel for Chhattisgarh, union minister of information and broadcasting M Venkaiah Naidu stated that a high-power transmitter would be commissioned in Jagdalpur (Bastar district headquarter) which would beam signal of AIR Jagdalpur to a radius of 200 km.

    A proposal by the public broadcaster stated that 5-10 lakh units of DTH STBs will be given away for free to people in areas suffering due to left-wing extremism, PTI reported. A senior information and broadcasting ministry confirmed that they would distribute the STBs in naxal-infested areas.

    Addressing an event in Raipur recently, Naidu had said that such an initiative would help people in tribal and remote areas of naxal-hit states to connect with government’s various development schemes. Naidu also said that the government would distribute 10,000 free DTH STBs in tribal and remote areas of Chhattisgarh.

    The measure would help people in Naxal-hit areas to watch about 100 television channels for free.

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  • Total private TV channels now 883, six more cancellations in June 2017

    NEW DELHI: With an increase of just one channel in June 2017, the total number of functional private television channels has gone up to 883, though permission was granted to 1078,

    This number is still far short of the claim made last year that the country will have 1500 channels by the end of March this year.

    The master list issued by the Government of 883 includes nine channels whose permission has been “cancelled by the Information and Broadcasting Ministry due to security denial by Home Ministry However stay order given by Court.”

    The licences of 195 (as against 189 by end of May 2017) were cancelled. (This does not include the nine whose cases were stayed by Courts.)

    In the 883, the number of news channels has fallen to 388 from 391 as on 31 May, while there are 495 general entertainment channels. Of these, 776 channels including 367 news channels are permitted to uplink from and downlink in India. Another 89 including fifteen news channels are uplinked from overseas and permitted to downlink into India.

    In comparison, the country has only eighteen channels including six news channels which are uplinked from India but permitted to downlink in other countries.

    The number of total channels had grown from 869 in February-end 2016 to 892 in February-end this year but has fallen by ten since then. In fact, the number had risen to 899 by the end of December 2016 when the total cancellations were 155. By January-end this year, the number had fallen to 889 of which twelve banned channels had received stay orders from Courts.

    Channels permitted in June includes just one newx channel – TV 1 News 24×7 owned by Lakshmi Gold Khazaanaa Pvt. Ltd. The other channels permitted in June this year are: FYI TV18 HD and History TV 18 Tamil owned by AETN 18 Media Pvt. Ltd; Enter 10 Bangla and Shaandaar Cinema owned by Enter 10 Television Pvt. Ltd; Prerna owned by Graphisads Private Limited; and BNB owned by BnB Entertainment Pvt. Ltd.

    The list of the channels permitted as on 30 June 2017 along with their area and language of operation and the names of owning companies has been placed on the I and B Ministry site mib.nic.in.

    The Parliamentary Standing Committee for Information Technology which goes into issues relating to Information and Broadcasting had last year noted that the State Finance Commission while drafting its proposals for the 12th Plan (2012-17) had assumed that the number of permitted TV channels would rise to 1500.

    Meanwhile, the Committee was told that the present set up of Electronic Media Monitoring Centre had developed logging and recording facility for 900 TV channels and is thus fully equipped to start monitoring of all permitted channels available on public domain.

    The Broadcast Engineering Consultants India Ltd. (BECIL) is configuring all available free to air channels in the content monitoring system of the EMMC.

  • Broadcasting Content Council gets new chairman – ex-SC judge Vikramjit Sen

    NEW DELHI: Former Supreme Court Judge Justice Vikramajit Sen has been appointed the new Chairperson of Broadcasting Content Complaints Council (BCCC), the independent self-regulatory body set up by the Indian Broadcasting Foundation in June 2011 to examine content-related complaints relating to all non-news general entertainment channels in India.

    Justice Sen succeeds former Punjab and Haryana High Court Chief Justice, Justice Mukul Mudgal, whose three-year term as BCCC Chairperson has come to an end. The Board of Directors of IBF announced the appointment.

    A delegation of the IBF Board, led by the Foundation President. Punit Goenka, and comprising its Directors Aroon Purie, Rajat Sharma, Uday Shankar and I. Venkat, met Justice Sen and invited him to chair the BCCC for the next three years.

    Justice Sen, an alumnus of St. Xavier’s School (Delhi) and St. Stephen’s College (Delhi), earned his degree in Law from Faculty of Law, Delhi University. After a long tenure as a Judge of the Delhi High Court, he was appointed Chief Justice of Karnataka High Court and elevated as a Judge of the Supreme Court of India in 2012, an office he served till December 2015.

    In his farewell message, Justice Mudgal thanked all members of BCCC and the IBF Board. “Your presence and constant support greatly helped me perform my duties at BCCC. It is very encouraging that over the years, BCCC has evolved into a robust and credible self-regulatory mechanism of global standards,” he said.

    In his acceptance message, Justice Sen said, “I am looking forward to this exciting assignment. Independence of the media is extremely important and equally important is the responsibility that comes along with it.”

    In his welcome message to the new BCCC Chairperson, Goenka said, “Our Board is confident that Justice Sen’s presence will stimulate the process of adjudicating complaints received from various stakeholders, including the Ministry of Information & Broadcasting, and take forward the process of transparent and impartial decision-making.”

    In its six-year-long journey, BCCC, which is a 13-member body, has handled more than 40,000 content-related complaints. The Council’s 67th meeting, under the stewardship of its new Chairperson Justice Vikramajit Sen, will be held in August.

    Former Chief Justice of Madras and Delhi high courts and former Chairperson of Law Commission of India, Justice A.P. Shah, was the founding Chairperson of BCCC.

  • Vital IP topics, piracy & counterfeiting ill-effects: 4000 workshops to be conducted under DIPP

    NEW DELHI: The newly-launched Scheme for IPR Awareness – Creative India; Innovative India aims to conduct over 4000 IPR awareness workshops/seminars in academic institutions (schools and colleges) and the industry, including MSMEs and Startups, as also IP training and sensitisation programmes for enforcement agencies and the judiciary.

    The Scheme aims at raising IPR awareness amongst students, youth, authors, artists, budding inventors and professionals to inspire them to create, innovate and protect their creations and inventions across India including Tier 1, Tier 2, Tier 3 cities as well as rural areas in the next 3 years.

    It has been launched taking forward the National Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) Policy 2016 by the Cell for IPR Promotion and Management (CIPAM) under the aegis of the Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion (DIPP).

    Workshops will cover all vital IP topics including international filing procedures, promotion of geographical indications and highlighting the ill-effects of piracy and counterfeiting.

    The Scheme for IPR Awareness would be implemented through partner organisations to promote innovation and entrepreneurship.

    Earlier this year, DIPP and World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) signed an agreement to establish Technology and Innovation Support Centers (TISC)

    CIPAM is designated as the National Focal point for the TISC national network. As the national focal point, CIPAM shall identify potential host institutions, assess their capacities and support them in joining the TISC project. CIPAM will also act as the main intermediary between WIPO and TISC host institutions and coordinateall the activities of the national TISC network.

    Over 500 TISCs operate worldwide and establishing TISC in India will give the host institutions access to the Global network. In upcoming years CIPAM is planning to establish TISC’s in Universities, State Science Councils, R&D institutions etc. TISC will give an impetus to Knowledge sharing, sharing of best practices among the TISC’s, capacity building, generation and commercialisation of IPs

    Recenly, DIPP Joint Secretary Rajiv Agarwal had said the intellectual property rights regime in India is undergoing a process of re-engineering with the government and industry collaborating.

    The year 2017 marked a step forward for India in its IP history with the Indian leadership adequately recognizing the crucial role that intellectual property played in fostering innovation, accelerating growth and enhancing business competitiveness, industry experts say.

  • MIB scheme evaluation: Revised tenders invited from 20

    NEW DELHI: Nine more agencies have been added to the revised tender for the evaluation of its schemes to be continued beyond the 12th Plan by the ministry of information and broadcasting, taking the total number of short-listed agencies to 20.

    Interestingly, development of community radio and anti-piracy programme in the film sector which were a part of the tender notice of 6 June have been taken off the new list of schemes to be covered. The number of schemes has also been reduced to seven and their sub-schemes against 12 in the earlier tender announcement.

    Tenders have been invited by 24 July and will be opened on the morning of 27 July in the presence of authorised representatives of the bidders. The ministry has made it clear that it is not permissible for the addresses to transfer this invitation to any other institution.

    A notice on the website of the ministry includes Terms of Reference (TOR) of the Schemes for Assignment, the standard form of certificates to be included in the proposal and the standard form of agreement. The evaluation of the proposals will be done by the Evaluation Committee.

    A detailed proposal including the technical bid and the financial bid need to be submitted in two separate sealed covers. The reference number of the letter and the title of the assignment should be superscribed on the envelope containing the proposal.

    The short-listed agencies are:

    1. Academy of Management Studies,
    2. AFC India Ltd.,
    3. National Institute for Entrepreneurship and Small Business Development (NIESBUD),
    4. MAPCON Limited,
    5. Datamation Consultants Pvt. Ltd.,
    6. Chrome Data Analytics & Media
    7. Transnational Altemate Learning for Emancipation and Empowerment through Multimedia (TALEEM),
    S. GFK Mode Pvt. Ltd.,
    9. Development & Research Services Pvt. Ltd.,
    10. Nielsen (India) hrt. Ltd.,
    I l. Sigma Research and Consulting Pvt. Ltd.,
    12. Ipsos Research Pvt. Limited.,
    13. Sreejak Media Pvt. Ltd.,
    14. IMRB Intemational,
    15. Kadence Research lndia Pvt Ltd.
    16. Mott McDonald Pvt. Ltd.,
    17. Operations Research Group Pvt. Ltd.,
    18. KPMG, Building No. 10,
    19. McKinsey & Company,
    20. Quality Council of India.

    The schemes include:

    Broadcasting Sector

    Prasar Bharati

    a) Grant in aid to Prasar Bharati
    b) Grant in aid to Prasar Bharati for Kisan Channel

    Film Sector

    i)  Infrastructure Development Programme relating to Film Sector
    a)  Upgradation, modernisation and expansion of CBFC and certification process
    b)  Upgradation ofSiri Fort Complex
    c)  Upgradation of building infrastructure of Films Division
    d)  Grant-in-Aid to FTII – U pgradation and Modernisation ofFTll
    e)  Infrastructure development in SRFTI
    ii) Development Communication & Dissemination of Filmic Content a)  Promotion  of Indian  cinema  through film festivals and film markets in India and abroad
    b)  Production of films and documentaries in various Indian languages
    c)  Webcasting of Film Archives
    d)  Acquisition of archival films and film material
    iii)National Film Heritage Mission
    iv) Setting up a Centre of Excellence for Animation, Gaming and VFX (NCoE)

    Information Sector

    i)   Media Infrastructure Development Programme
    a)  Revamping & Restructuring of DA VP
    b)  Modernisation of PIB
    c)  Opening up of New Regional Centers of IIMC
    d)  Revitalisation, upgradation and modernisation of Publications Division and Employment News
    e)  National Centre of Photography and Special Drive for North Eastern States
    f)   Strengthening of RNT Headquarters

    ii) Development Communication & Information Dissemination
    a)  People’s Empowerment through Development Communication (Conception and Dissemination)
    b)  Media Outreach Programme and Publicity for Special Events
    c)  Direct Contact Programme by Directorate of Field Publicity
    d)  Live Arts and Culture
    e)  Social Media Platform

    Also read:

    MIB scheme evaluation: Tenders invited from Chrome DM, IMRB & Nielsen etc

    Tenders invited for agency to evaluate MIB schemes in information, broadcasting and films

     

     

     

  • Phonographic Digital will license & collect fees from telcos & streaming services

    MUMBAI: Significant change is afoot in the Indian music industry. Almost unnoticed, a new organisation has cropped up to licence and collect fees from the various telcos and streaming services. Called the Phonographic Digital Ltd (PDL) it was incorporated in March 2017, just as the financial year was coming to a close, with its registered office in Kolkata.

    Earlier, the Phonographic Performance Ltd (PPL), which was headed by Vipul Pradhan as its CEO, was mandated to assign licences on behalf of its Indian label members to the various telecom operators such as Airtel, JioMusic, Idea, Vodafone, and streaming services and collect royalties from them.

    The PPL will continue as in the past to be a collection organisation for public performance of sound recordings from establishments, events and radio.

    Read the full report here:

    Indian music industry sets up PDL, a new association for telco licensing

  • IIS overhaul & DD RNUs to focus on regional infra & local content

    NEW DELHI: Information and broadcasting minister M Venkaiah Naidu has urged the regional news framework to focus on local content, development and bottoms-up approach.

    He said the emerging information flow should aim at transformative and emerging New India with effective communication outreach. The GST and Swachh Bharat campaign were classic examples of communicating reforms and seamlessly reaching out to the common man about the benefits of such flagship initiatives of the Government.

    Inaugurating the Doordarshan Regional News Unit (RNU) workshop here, he said the strategy of Doordarshan should be founded on three pillars of authenticity, objectivity and timely dissemination of information. Objectivity in news and information dissemination was critical for people to understand and pursue issues.

    The Regional News Units (RNUs) played a critical role in a linguistic and culturally diverse country like India, catering to local aspirations and addressing communication needs thereby bringing out a synergy in Government communication.

    The Minister emphasised that the communication outposts to reform mindsets, enhance administrative performance and transform nation through the broadcast of success stories which had significant impact on the lives of the local people fell on the RNUs.

    RNUs telecast a total of about 146 daily news bulletin in 23 languages for a cumulative duration of more than 30 hours daily.

    He added that the RNUs need to work in collaboration with the state governments to bring about transformation in the emerging New India and perform proactively the responsibilities of a public broadcaster. He also called upon the participants to focus on innovative thinking, out of box ideas, new methods involving technological tools and a foresight to understand the changing media landscape.

    Speaking on the media and entertainment Industry, Naidu said the industry is on the cusp of a strong phase of growth, backed by rising consumer demand and improving advertising revenues.

    He also highlighted the Government’s push towards Cable digitisation as well as the role of free to air (FTH) DTH platforms like Doordarshan FreeDish in plugging the gap between premium DTH and low quality Cable market.

    Naidu said the Ministry was in the process of bringing out a bringing about a complete overhaul in the Indian Information Service Cadre in line with the changing information and communication paradigm. The focus would be shifting towards strengthening of the regional infrastructure and personnel to fulfill the communication and information needs of each and every section of the society across the country.

    Naidu also complimented the officials for their efforts while launching the new website of DD News on the occasion.

    A presentation on the functioning of the RNUs was earlier made by DG News Veena Jain highlighting the mandates and achievements of the RNUs. The presentation also provided an insight into the future roadmap for the RNUs.

    MoS Rajyavardhan Rathore, Prasar Bharati Chairman A Surya Prakash, Ministry Secretary N K.Sinha, and Prasar Bharati CEO Shashi S Vempatii were also present on the occasion.

    Also Read :

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  • MIB minister cautions against unlicensed TV channels

    NEW DELHI: Minister for Information and Broadcasting M Venkaiah Naidu while cautioning against transmission of unauthorized TV channels in the country said that content generation in local languages and dialects was important to reach out to communicate with people.

    Adopting innovative ways and leveraging new media in information dissemination was necessary to keep pace with the changing communication paradigm, the Minister stated Thursday while chairing a review meeting of regional media units of MIB.

    Stressing upon the need to ensure effective implementation of Cable TV Act in order to restrict airing of objectionable content and unauthorized channels, the Minister urged Union territories to appoint nodal officers to assist local administrators in this regard.

    During the review meeting, Naidu announced that the All India Radio would be commissioning of two new shortwave solid state digital transmitters of 100 kw power each for dissemination of content across the border for Afghanistan- Pakistan region by the end of August 2017. The transmitters shall be installed in Delhi.

    Those who were present during the meeting included junior MIB Minister Col. Rajyavardhan Rathore, Andaman & Nicobar Islands LG Jagdish Mukhi, MIB secretary N K Sinha and representatives from UTs.

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    Report illegal TV channels, Govt alerted 

    ‘Inappropriate content’ on TV & radio to be regulated

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