NEW DELHI: After struggling for almost 25 years, the public broadcaster Prasar Bharati has finally broken the bureaucratic shackles and started the process of completing 2,367 fresh recruitments for different posts in All India Radio (AIR) and Doordarshan (DD).
The Group of Ministers attached to the Information and Broadcasting Ministry, which had gone into issues relating to the pubcaster had earlier recommended a total of 3,452 posts that needed to be filled on an immediate basis.
Of the total recruits, 120 persons have been shortlisted for immediate training at the National Academy for Broadcast Media set up by Prasar Bharati in north Delhi.
These new recruits were addressed by Prasar Bharati chairman Surya Prakash, eminent communicator Kiran Karnik, Prasar Bharati CEO Jawhar Sircar, and senior advisor VAM Hussain to generally acquaint them with the kind of challenges ahead of them.
Speaking of the role of the public broadcaster, Sircar said that both AIR and DD had helped in knitting the people of the country.
Pubcaster sources told Indiantelevision.com that the new recruits were being given induction training in batches of 55 at a time.
Sources also said that the induction training for each group would last around nine weeks.
Category: Terrestrial
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Pubcaster breaks bureaucratic shackles; hires new recruits
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DD to live telecast and webcast Yoga Day celebrations
NEW DELHI: The largest single Yoga demonstration at a single venue – the Rajpath in Delhi – will be telecast on Doordarshan channels as well as webcast live on the International Day of Yoga on 21 June.
Given the expected large participation at one place of a minimum 35,000, the AYUSH Ministry has applied to the Guinness World Records for “Largest Yoga Demonstration/ Class at single venue.”
A 20-second video animation spot on the logo has been prepared, which is being telecast over Doordarshan and other private cable and satellite channels across the country.
A booklet on Yoga Protocol and a 33 minute DVD of Aasanas, which will be performed at the Rajpath has also been prepared by the Ministry of AYUSH.
In addition, Prime Minister Narendra Modi posts a daily tweet on his Twitter account with young persons demonstrating different Yoga postures.
An hour-long programme will be held at Rajpath starting at 6.40 am and will be attended by Modi along with Cabinet Ministers, Minister of States, MPs as well as diplomats and foreign nationals. In all, over 35000 people are expected to take part including students, National Cadet Corps Cadets, Central Reserve Police Force and Yoga Institutions.
Respective Ministries are also issuing a postal stamp and special coins. The coins will be of the denomination of Rs 10 and Rs 100.
External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj announced that out of the total of 177 countries, which have given co-sponsorship, 47 countries are from the Organisation of Islamic Countries. They have co-sponsored the event and expressed their desire to participate in the yoga sessions being organised in the Indian Missions.
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DD Bharati brings back ‘Byomkesh Bakshi’ after 22 years
NEW DELHI: At a time when a feature film has just been made on the subject, Doordarshan is re-telecasting the popular series Byomkesh Bakshi, which was made more than twenty years earlier in 1993.
The series is being telecast on DD’s cultural channel DD Bharati.
It was the first Hindi series based on the Byomkesh Bakshi character created by Sharadindu Bandyopadhyay. The series was made over two seasons, a 14-episode series in 1993 and a twenty-part series in 1997. The series achieved cult status and was even repeated several times on DD National.
The series stars Rajit Kapur and K K Raina as Byomkesh Bakshi and Ajit Bandyopadhyay respectively. Both actors known for their stage experience also went on to act in many films later.
The series was directed by one of the masters of art cinema in the seventies and eighties, Basu Chatterjee.
Byomkesh Bakshi, a Bengali detective takes on spine-chilling cases with his sidekick Ajit Bandyopadhyay.
The series will be aired every Friday at 10 pm on DD Bharati.
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‘Stree Shakti’ on DD National commences second season
NEW DELHI: Following the success of its first season, Doordarshan National has launched the second season of its weekend programme Stree Shakti, which will highlight stories of excellence and achievements with the new anchor Shruti Ulfat.
The first season had brought forth the challenges faced by women from across the country.
The series, telecast every Saturday and Sunday at 9 pm, airs some never before told stories of courage by women who have carved a niche through wilderness of misery, struggle and extreme agony, and emerged as winners.
Issues being tackled are gang rapes, domestic violence, gender violence, female infanticide, acid attacks, forced child marriages, and many such harrowing situations.
The second season of the show has umpteen stories on exemplary courage of women who were raped and left to die on the railway tracks, disabled women who fought the pain and won many battles, issues related with sex workers, mental illness and refugees who received help from the government.
Ulfat said, “Shaken, emotional, inspired, are the three words that instantly come to my find after shooting with these courageous women in Stree Shakti. I feel so much more evolved after knowing their stories. This season, I feel is certainly going to touch the hearts of the viewers, and bring them closer to us.”
In its endeavor to have quality content balanced with important issues, Doordarshan National attempts to bring to the limelight, the unsung women achievers, who are common faces in the crowd, but have unmatched stories of excellence to tell.
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DD National spruces up afternoon slot with six new shows
NEW DELHI: Doordarshan National has spruced up its afternoon band titled ‘DD Dopahar Apke Ghar’ by launching six new shows.
Introduced last year as a separate band with fresh shows and not repeats, the afternoon slots between noon and 3 pm has become popular and has been reflected in the channel’s TAM ratings.
The new shows have been introduced in two phases. Centered on different genres, the programmes, which will be aired between 12 – 3 pm are: Tum Bin Jiya Jaye Na, Adhikar, Pragati, Ek Laqshya, Humnawaz and Ummeed Nayi Subah Ki.
Tum Bin Jiya Jaye Na will be aired at 12 pm and is a romantic drama telling the story of Simran, a girl who loves someone since childhood but marries someone else.
Adhikar at 12:30 pm is the story of feisty Nandini, whose courage, resilience, self- confidence and principles are tested through many ups and downs in the family she gets married into.
In the 1 pm slot, the channel will soon air Humnawaz, which tells the story of two lovers who belong to different communities, castes, and social strata but write their own story of love, through their feelings and passion for each other, hoping to bridge the gap between, their families, created by archaic traditions of society.
Using the 1:30 pm slot to bring in a series based on Sahitya Academy winning novel, ‘Diwaro Se Par Akash’, DD will shortly commence telecast of Ummeed Nayi Subah Ki, which is the story of Vasudha, who breaks the chains of old fashioned traditions and emerges as the evolved woman of today.
At 2 pm, the social drama Pragati will showcase the age-old malady of society – that of girl child education – portrayed in the story by the little girl Pragati who fights for her right to education and eventually wins.
This will be followed at 2:30 pm by Ek Laqshya, which brings a lively, vivacious and inspiring story of three girls who join the Indian army facing their own set of problems, both internal and external.
A DD spokesperson said, “Through these six shows, Doordarshan not only wants to hold the attention of the afternoon viewers, but also aims to capture their hearts and give a strong message that through the slot ‘DD Dopahar’, DD National wants to portray a strong, progressive and emancipated society; in which we live in today, as these shows are just a reflection of our society.”
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Tedial provides Doordarshan with integrated MAM and archive solution
MUMBAI: Independent MAM technology solutions specialist Tedial has provided its Tarsys enterprise MAM system to Indian pubcaster Doordarshan.
The Tedial system, installed at Doordarshan’s Kolkata facility provides its operators with core and browser-based desktop media tools as well as a fully integrated archive system, able to scale in volume and throughput. The Tedial archive will connect to Doordarshan’s sites in other regions as well as its central archive in Delhi. Tedial’s Indian partner MediaGuru carried out the installation.
Doordarshan provides television, radio, online and mobile services throughout India and overseas through the Indian Network and also Radio India. Apart from delivering a fully equipped archive, Tedial’s Tarsys MAM will also enable Doordarshan to ingest its existing U-matic, Betacam SP, DVCPR050 and XDCAM HD422 programme content stored on tapes and optical disc media, into the system in both high and low resolution formats.
Tarsys is fully integrated with 30TB of HP Online Storage and a 48-slot HP LTO6 tape library as well as Tektronix Cerify QC for automated quality control of file-based content. It enables operators at the facility to browse, catalogue, search and store content via the Tedial web-client.
Doordarshan director of engineering Ashish De said, “The Tedial MAM system provides us with an integrated archive that is fully scalable enabling us to expand the system, as and when the time comes. Tarsys was recommended to us by MediaGuru following a rigorous tender process and we are very happy with the system.”
Tedial chief sales and marketing officer Esther Mesas added, “We’re delighted to announce this sale to Doordarshan in conjunction with MediaGuru. Our unique media IT architecture, core software modules and API can be configured to create the most efficient and flexible media processing and archive systems available in the industry.”
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DD Kisan is like an open university for students & farmers: Narendra Modi
NEW DELHI: The recently launched Doordarshan Kisan channel should serve as an open university for agriculture and irrigation, according to Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
Speaking on All India Radio at his monthly ‘Mann Ki Baat’ on 31 May, Modi said that DD Kisan TV is a channel where both the teacher and the student are farmers.
He added that the newly launched channel gives him a lot of joy and is very important for him. “DD Kisan has a future of its own,” Modi said.
“I would like to let the fishermen know that the Kisan channel also has information related to fishing and animal husbandry. You will benefit from it,” he added.
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Pubcaster not consulted on new DD News appointment: Prasar Bharati officials
NEW DELHI: The order posting Veena Jain to head the news channel of Doordarshan as director general and noting that the officer ‘will report to the Information and Broadcasting Ministry for all purposes’ has come as a surprise to many as it implies that DD News is to be directly controlled by the Ministry.
However, Prasar Bharati officials told Indiantelevision.com that this has been the case since the inception of DD News.
All India Radio has 45 news units while DD has 30 news units around the country, and all are headed by Indian Information Service (IIS) officers posted by the Ministry.
Senior Prasar Bharati Advisor Brig. V A M Hussain told the website that Section 11(B)(2) of the Prasar Bharati Act 1990 clearly states that the Ministry must consult or seek advice of the pubcaster before making such appointments. Under the same Act, Prasar Bharati was made into an autonomous organisation.
However, in this case, a copy of the Ministry’s order was not even marked to Prasar Bharati CEO Jawhar Sircar.
Reacting to a news report about this, Hussain tweeted, ‘Never consulted Prasar Bharati in past/Fact is Never handed over News.’
Answering a question, he said that DD had 24 channels and DD News is the only one where the IIS officers are directly answerable to the Ministry and are posted without consultation with the pubcaster.
In fact, Sircar has written to the Ministry several times in the past in this connection but has not received a reply.
The pubcaster had also reacted strongly when S M Khan had been removed unceremoniously last year and placed on compulsory wait.
During the run-up to the elections, Khan was reported to have delayed the transmission of Narendra Modi’s interview to Doordarshan. Answering a query about editing out certain portions, he had sad this was done only because of references made about persons who had not been given an opportunity to have their say.
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Doordarshan’s TV relay centers allocated Rs 1500 crore in last three years
NEW DELHI: Doordarshan has been allocated total funds of Rs 1,583.97 crore in the financial years since 2012 for its ’s TV relay centers.
This includes a sum of Rs 498.33 crore in 2012-13, Rs 512.96 crore in 2013-14 and Rs 572.68 crore in 2014-15.
Five new High Power Transmitters (HPTs) in Jammu and Kashmir have been approved as part of continuing scheme of 12th Plan: HPTs (DD1 & DD News) in Rajouri; HPT Natha Top (Patni Top); HPT Himbotingla Top; and HPT Green Ridge.
Prasar Bharati has 1416 TV transmitters of varying power in the country, including 99 transmitters located in Rajasthan.
Prasar Bharati sources said requests for setting up of new transmitters and upgradation of transmitters are received from various State Governments and public representatives from time to time.
TV transmitters are generally closed when the area covered by the existing transmitter is covered by any other transmitter commissioned in the area or nearby location. So the terrestrial coverage is available in the area and viewers are not affected by the closure of the transmitter.
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Prasar Bharati’s funds for content development stopped under 12th Plan
NEW DELHI: The government funds to Prasar Bharati for content development and dissemination have been stopped from the 12th Plan.
The pubcaster was getting funds from the government under the 11th Plan for content development and dissemination scheme for both Doordarshan (DD) and All India Radio (AIR), primarily for the Northeast, Jammu and Kashmir, and Urdu.
The pubcaster will now have to depend on its Internal Extra Budgetary Resources (IEBR) from the 12th Plan.
Interestingly, Prasar Bharati said this development came at a time when its CEO Jawhar Sircar had asked the Ministry for funds for radio and TV channels in tribal areas and those channels, which are unable to run 24×7 – one example being Shimla.
Information and Broadcasting Ministry sources told Indiantelevision.com that Prasar Bharati was given Rs 54 crore in 2012-13, Rs 47 crore in 2013-14 and Rs 36 crore in 2014-15.
Pertinent to note here is that there was a drastic reduction of funds allocated in 2014-15, since the Rs 36 crore also included Rs 25 crore for DD Kisan, which was launched recently on 26 May, 2015.