ITV

Tag: Doordarshan News

  • Network18’s Palki Sharma to make comeback with a new show?

    Network18’s Palki Sharma to make comeback with a new show?

    Mumbai: News personality and Wion’s ex-managing editor Palki Sharma, who recently joined Network18 Group for an upcoming project, is likely to be back with a new show soon.

    In a conversation with ANI’s managing editor Smita Prakash on her podcast, Sharma hinted at her return, hopefully, with a better show.

    In the recently announced teaser of the episode by ANI, Sharma was recalling the reason why she left her previous channel, Wion: “… left because I thought that whatever I wanted to do there, I had done there…”

    Moreover, she also shared that she did not enjoy everything that she was doing there and didn’t like the direction they were taking.

    Acknowledging the curiosity of the fans and their desire to know about her return, Sharma said, “A lot of people write to me, and every time I put a photo on Instagram, people are like, yeh toh theek hai par show kab ayega? which is nice, but I want to tell you and everyone else that… I will be back, and it will be a better show hopefully…and I want to do the show when I am ready, when I know it is going to work.”

    Sharma has over 21 years of experience across several media, including the ITV Network, Network18, Doordarshan News, and The Hindustan Times.

    She was the host of Gravitas, a popular prime-time English news programme, as well as the highly regarded digital programme Gravitas Plus on Wion. Additionally, she conceptualised and oversaw the Wion Global Summit, a channel event held annually in Dubai.

    In a career spanning over two decades, Sharma has interviewed several national and international heads of state. She has also covered important stories and events on the ground, including the ongoing conflict in Ukraine, the Quad Summits in Tokyo and Washington DC, and many others.

    At Network18, Sharma will launch a new multi-platform video project for the group. This will be her second stint at Network18, where she has earlier worked in different capacities.

    The video project to be built and led by Sharma will straddle all formats of news reporting and presentation. The new product will aim to capture a new generation of audiences for the group.

  • PIB’s Ira Joshi new DG of Doordarshan News

    PIB’s Ira Joshi new DG of Doordarshan News

    MUMBAI: Doordarshan News has appointed senior Indian Information Service officer Ira Joshi as director general (DG).

    Joshi is currently serving as the DG of the Press Information Bureau. According to an order issued by the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting, Ghanshyam Goel, currently also serving as DG of PIB, was given the charge of DG, Directorate of Advertising and Visual Publicity (DAVP). Goel was given the charge in place of Esther Kar, who has been put on ‘Compulsory Wait’ till further orders.

    Veena Jain, who was appointed as the Doordarshan News DG in May 2015, had retired in August this year and All India Radio’s News Services Division DG Sitanshu Kar was given the additional charge of the post.

  • DD agriculture programmes get additional budget

    NEW DELHI: Just before the financial year 2016-17 came to a close, the Central Production Centre of Doordarshan was been allocated an additional sum of Rs 1.9 million in a modified budget for production of agriculture programmes.

    The CPC, which produces programmes for DD Kisan apart from DD National, had given given a budget of Rs 5.2 million at the beginning of the year. Thus, the total budget for 2016-17 has risen to Rs 7.1 million.

    The directive was given by the Directorate General of DD after a letter was received in this connection on 28 March 2017. The additional allocation has been given under Broadcasting Mode under the scheme ‘Mass Media Support to Agriculture Extension’ assisted by other Ministries.

    Earlier, in December 2016, Doordarshan News and 30 regional news units (RNU) were allocated an additional Rs 100.8 million for the current year, taking the total allocation to about Rs 474 million for expenses that include payment to stringers and to the news agencies — United News of India and Press Trust of India.

    Of this, Prasar Bharati sanctioned a sum of Rs 620,000 for the news agencies which includes an additional Rs 260,000 approved earlier this week. Thus, the budget for DD News went up to Rs 240 million with the additional Rs 54 million.

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  • Music genre emerges top gainer in HSM: Chrome week 33

    Music genre emerges top gainer in HSM: Chrome week 33

    MUMBAI: With a marked increase of 2 per cent, the music genre emerged as the top gainer in Chrome’s Opportunity to See (OTS) analysis for the Hindi speaking market (HSM).

    9XM emerged as the most benefited channel with 89.9 percent OTS in week 33.  

    With the Olympic fever on, the sports genre showed an increase of 1.3 per cent across India with DD Sports leading the genre with 89.4 per cent OTS.  

    Youth in the HSM booked the third spot in the list of top gainers with a 0.7 per cent increase in OTS. Channel V led the tally with 88.7 per cent OTS.

    Doordarshan’s DD News was the chart topper with 97.4 per cent OTS as Hindi News in HSM observed a growth of 0.7 per cent.

    The business news genre in six metros showed a drop of 0.9 per cent and was among the losers with CNBC Awaaz scoring 82.6 per cent OTS.

    Aastha emerged as the most affected channel with 97.7 per cent OTS even as the religious genre saw a drop of 0.4 per cent.

  • Music genre emerges top gainer in HSM: Chrome week 33

    Music genre emerges top gainer in HSM: Chrome week 33

    MUMBAI: With a marked increase of 2 per cent, the music genre emerged as the top gainer in Chrome’s Opportunity to See (OTS) analysis for the Hindi speaking market (HSM).

    9XM emerged as the most benefited channel with 89.9 percent OTS in week 33.  

    With the Olympic fever on, the sports genre showed an increase of 1.3 per cent across India with DD Sports leading the genre with 89.4 per cent OTS.  

    Youth in the HSM booked the third spot in the list of top gainers with a 0.7 per cent increase in OTS. Channel V led the tally with 88.7 per cent OTS.

    Doordarshan’s DD News was the chart topper with 97.4 per cent OTS as Hindi News in HSM observed a growth of 0.7 per cent.

    The business news genre in six metros showed a drop of 0.9 per cent and was among the losers with CNBC Awaaz scoring 82.6 per cent OTS.

    Aastha emerged as the most affected channel with 97.7 per cent OTS even as the religious genre saw a drop of 0.4 per cent.

  • Govt. denies routine transfers of AIR newsreaders, says DD has no permanent newsreaders

    Govt. denies routine transfers of AIR newsreaders, says DD has no permanent newsreaders

    NEW DELHI: While reiterating that there are no permanent newsreaders or news presenters in Doordarshan News, the Government has denied any routine transfers of newsreaders-cum-translators (NRT) in All India Radio (AIR).

     

    Minister of State for Information and Broadcasting Rajyavardhan Rathore told Parliament that NRTs of different Indian languages are needed for the smooth functioning of news operations in different languages in News Services Division, All India Radio.

     

    He said there are a total of 27 NRTs working in eleven languages in the News Services Division of AIR. They were all employed in the eighties and nineties and there has been no new appointment after 1999.  

     

    Meanwhile, DD News sources told Indiantelevision.com that there are no newsreaders at the centre any more. Regional kendras have newsreaders, who work on casual basis for a maximum of seven days in a month.

     

    At the same time, sources also said that those who read the news at DD News headquarters are either designated as anchors or anchor-correspondents. Most of them are hired on a contractual basis, however, some work on a casual basis.

  • DD News staff move CAT as contracts not renewed, even as DD advertises for new staff

    DD News staff move CAT as contracts not renewed, even as DD advertises for new staff

    NEW DELHI: Doordarshan News has denied that it has asked contractual journalists to look for another job by June-end.

     

    DD News director general Akshay Rout told Indiantelevision.com that no such action had been taken and the rumours were baseless.

     

    However, some of these journalists have moved the Central Administrative Tribunal (CAT) seeking a restraining order (injunction) against DD News management’s decision to terminate services of about 100 employees. The petition alleges that the management’s decision to end service contracts is “illegal and against its own policy of renewing contracts every year in case it is not terminated.”

     

    The tribunal that admitted the petition on 27 February has issued a stay order on the move stating that “one set of contractual employees shall not be replaced by another set of contractual employees.” It has also directed Prasar Bharati to respond by 30 March. The notice has also gone to Prasar Bharati and the Information and Broadcasting Ministry.

     

    The news staff apprehend that the entire contractual workforce would be removed in a phased manner.

     

    It is learnt from some news staff that certain senior officials have not only been threatening contractual staff, but also begun giving them long duties or night duties.

     

    Simultaneously, the DD News website carries an advertisement for hiring 20 news correspondents and editors and offers pay packages of over Rs 1 lakh.

     

    The petition has been moved by 31 journalists, who claim they were informally told to leave the organisation. “They [contractual journalists] have been forced to work and do their normal duties even without formal letters of employment being extended, they are now sought to be illegally removed from services,” states the petition. The management has already fired three contractual journalists sending strong warning signals to the rest of temporary workforce, petitioner Anil Punia told Indiantelevision.com.

     

    Punia stated that DD News has an editorial staff of about 300 in its national bureau. Of this, about 250 are contractual employees and rest are permanent officials drawn mainly from Indian Information Service (IIS).

     

    He also said that some of these contractual staff had been working for more than 10 years, but they were asked to keep on working even though their contracts were not renewed in October 2013.

     

    The petition states that mass hiring of contractual employees happened in 2003 when the channel was launched and in 2006 during news channel boom. A majority of them were hired from the Indian Institute of the Mass Communications.

     

    In the absence of a clear human resource policy, for the last 11 years, the DD News management has been renewing work contracts on yearly basis. However, employees complain that since the past three years contracts were renewed arbitrarily.

     

    In March, most journalists got three months extension until June.

  • Prasar Bharati CEO Sircar’s letter about IIS officers not linked to action on DD News DG

    Prasar Bharati CEO Sircar’s letter about IIS officers not linked to action on DD News DG

    NEW DELHI: The letter by Prasar Bharati CEO Jawhar Sircar seeking greater powers for the public broadcaster in postings of Indian Information Service (IIS) officers was not written in the context of the recent order placing Doordarshan News DG SM Khan on compulsory wait, sources in the pubcaster told indiantelevision.com.

     

    In fact, the letter was written on the morning of 8 August, whereas the action relating to Khan came late in the evening of the same day.

     

    Furthermore, the sources said this was an issue raised even earlier by Sircar and was only reiteration of an earlier view.

     

    It was pointed out that the issues relating to autonomy had already been listed in the Sam Pitroda report. Earlier, there were media reports that the letter to the Information and Broadcasting Ministry was linked to issues such as the allegedly “deliberately edited” pre-poll interview of Narendra Modi.

    The letter said Prasar Bharati has in the past two and a half years made several suggestions for posting and transfer of IIS officers which are still pending decision by the Government.

     

    Sircar suggested bifurcation by the Ministry of the work on a pro-rata basis and after which, postings of IIS officers to PB could be decided by the Prasar Bharati Board and orders issued, only after informing Ministry.

    “Since we are completely in the dark about career details of the officers, which are readily available in the Ministry’s files, it would be appropriate to share these with Prasar Bharati,” reads the letter.

    Sircar wrote that Prasar Bharati can be held responsible only if it monitors News Division and added that then IIS officers can also accept the fact that they have to work in tandem with Prasar Bharati.

     

    Sircar reiterated his proposal for a Professional Electronic Media Cadre within the IIS that could be developed by Prasar Bharati, the sources said. 

  • I&B Ministry makes senior-level transfers of Indian Information Service Officers in media units

    I&B Ministry makes senior-level transfers of Indian Information Service Officers in media units

    NEW DELHI: As part of several senior-level transfers in the media units of the Information and Broadcasting Ministry (I&B Ministry), Indian Information Service officer of the 1993 batch R C Joshi has been transferred as Director in the Directorate of Advertising and Visual Publicity.

     

    Joshi replaces Y K Baweja who is being moved to take his position as director (Media and Communications) in the Press Information Bureau (PIB).

     

    Chitra Gupta, who is currently assistant director (Media and Communications) at PIB in Guwahati, will join as assistant director in DAVP in Kolkata. Additionally, she will also hold charge of Doordarshan Kendra in Kolkata.

     

    S Mathias, who is presently additional director general (news) in the News Services Division of All India Radio, will also work on ‘loan basis’ for Doordarshan News till further orders.

     

     M S Rajnikanth, who is currently deputy director (News) in Doordarshan News in Delhi is being moved to Bangalore as director (M & C) in PIB.

     

    A K Srivastava, on repatriation from the deputation post as comptroller and auditor general will move as deputy director in the Indian Institute of Mass Communications as assistant professor.

     

    Pragya Paliwal Gaur, director under order of posting after her services were surrendered by the Health Ministry, will move as Director (M&C) in PIB.

     

    Vijay Kumar, who is presently director (M&C) in PIB Patna, is moving as director in the Publications Division in Delhi.

     

    H Rehman and K K Pant, both deputy director (M&C) in PIB, Delhi, are being moved as deputy director DPR (Defence) and deputy director (News) in DD News in Delhi respectively.  

     

    Pravin Kavi, assistant director (News) in All India Radio in Lucknow is to take Rehman’s place in PIB.

     

    N C Juyal, assistant director (News) in DD News, will be the assistant director (M&C) in PIB.

  • Contractual employees of DD News to observe Black Friday

    Contractual employees of DD News to observe Black Friday

    NEW DELHI: The contractual employees of Doordarshan News who have been protesting peacefully by wearing black bands for a salary hike and better working conditions are to observe 5 August as Black Friday.

    These employees have been protesting since yesterday by wearing black badges on their arms and will wear black clothes to show solidarity. Almost the entire staff including the packaging, camera section, editors, assignment, anchors, and reporters is part of this peaceful protest.

    A senior anchor who did not want to be named said: “The UPA claims to be concerned about the welfare of the common man but we who have been working under this same government have not had a salary hike in the last 3 years. Inflation has risen drastically in this period and monthly expenditure has gone up at least twofold. Some of us have been working here for just Rs 10,000 for the last there years and every month we are given an assurance of a hike but nothing has happened yet”.    
      
    Currently, there are close to 350 employees with DD News. None of them are part of any social welfare scheme like medical/life insurance. They do not have the benefit of a Public Provident Fund. Even women employees are not given maternity benefits/leave and their salary is cut when they are on leave for delivery. Contractual employees are also not entitled to any national holidays.

    These employees had observed a snap strike at prime time for a few hours earlier this year. Following that, the DD News administration had sent a recommendation to the Prasar Bharati Board for increase in wages. However, no decision has yet been taken, because a Prasar Bharati board member told indiantelevision.com that the attempt was to collate details of contractual employees in all DD channels before taking a decision.

    DD News was launched in 2003 and is currently the only bi-lingual 24 hour TV channel on air. The anchor said several questions have been raised from time to time about the quality of news content on the channel, but this exploitation of employees is never put in the public domain. The protest is an effort to awaken the administration to their plight and take concrete steps to improve their quality of life.