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Tag: Prakash Javadekar

  • No ideological apartheid or hate in invitations to media by Prasar Bharati: Javadekar

    No ideological apartheid or hate in invitations to media by Prasar Bharati: Javadekar

    NEW DELHI: The Government has emphasised that Prasar Bharati is ‘not overshadowed by ideological apartheid or hate.’

     

    Responding to a question, Information and Broadcasting Minister Prakash Javadekar said recently that Prasar Bharati carries out the public broadcasting services in a fair and objective manner and does not discriminate on the basis of ideologies.

     

    He said in Parliament recently that Prasar Bharati has informed the Ministry that no journalist has been decommissioned or debarred by Doordarshan to curtail their independence.

     

    Prasar Bharati has also said journalists are invited to various programmes according to the requirement of the subject, without any discrimination.

     

     The Minister made it clear that Prasar Bharati was a statutory autonomous body set up by an Act of Parliament – the Prasar Bharati (Broadcasting Corporation of India) Act 1990 – and “it is not a state run broadcasting network.”

  • Govt denies any plans to reduce DAVP allocations

    Govt denies any plans to reduce DAVP allocations

    NEW DELHI: The Government has denied that there is any move to drastically cut the budget of the Directorate of Advertising and Visual Publicity (DAVP).

    In fact, Information and Broadcasting Minister Prakash Javadekar has said that the publicity budget of DAVP has shown an increasing trend since 2009-10 onwards.

    While the actual plan and non-plan DAVP expenditure for 2010-11 was Rs 90.92 crore, it was Rs 127.72 crore in 2011-12, Rs 139.75 crore in 2012-13, and Rs 222.47 crore for 2013-14.  

    The allocation of budget for advertisement and publicity of the schemes/programmes of an individual Ministry/Department is allotted by Planning Commission and Ministry of Finance, the Minister told Parliament.

    Therefore, Javadekar said this Ministry cannot put any embargo on Ministries / Departments /Autonomous Bodies / Constitutional Bodies, etc. resorting to advertising. 

    In response to another question, the Minister said the money spent on electronic media and print media during 2013-14 was Rs 500.35 crore and Rs 446.68 crore, respectively. During 2012-13, the money spent on electronic media and print media was Rs 198.30 crore and Rs 404.38 crore, respectively.
  • Two open house meetings every month to speed channel licence clearance

    Two open house meetings every month to speed channel licence clearance

    NEW DELHI: The new government at the centre certainly seems to be taking the issue of channel licence clearance very seriously. To clear the long list of pending applications for new TV channels, the Information and Broadcasting (I&B) Ministry has decided to hold open house meeting with stakeholders twice a month, as against the earlier practice of one meeting a month.

     

    The next meeting is slated for 18 July in Shastri Bhavan, the main office of the Ministry. Stakeholders have been asked to send, in advance, the information they require, so that these can be supplied to them at the meeting.

     

    It is understood that almost a hundred applications are pending for clearance at various stages either with the I&B Ministry, Home Ministry or the Department of Telecom.

     

    Furthermore, the coming into force of the code of conduct in April this year prevented clearance of any new channels and therefore the number of channels which was 795 at the end of May remained the same at the end of June.

     

    A large number of new applications including those by Media Content and Communications Services (MCCS) that runs the ABP group of channels, Star India for its second Tamil channel, and Epic TV are pending.

     

    The only change was that the number of news and current affairs channels went up by two to 395 and the number of non news and current affairs channels came down by the same number to 400.

     

    The first four months of 2014 saw licences being given to nine channels including AXN HD and SET HD.

     

    The Ministry also placed on its website the names of the companies which own these channels, the language, and the date when permission was granted. 

  • Work begins on new Vijayawada DD Kendra for Andhra Pradesh

    Work begins on new Vijayawada DD Kendra for Andhra Pradesh

    NEW DELHI: The Government yesterday confirmed that it had received a proposal to create an interim set-up at the regional kendra of Doordarshan in Vijayawada to cater to the cultural and economic identities of Andhra Pradesh following bifurcation of the state.

     

    Information and Broadcasting Minister Prakash Javadekar informed Parliament yesterday that the proposal had been received from the DD Kendra at Hyderabad to start, on an interim basis, a two hour terrestrial transmission from 5 pm to 7 pm everyday including a 15 minute Telugu news bulletin.

     

    The rest 22 hours will be relayed from DDK Hyderabad, since DDK Vijayawada is currently only a programme generating facility (PGF).

     

    Earlier, DD sources had told indianlevision.com that the aim would be to ultimately turn the Vijayawada Kendra into a 24-hour Kendra because the Hyderabad Kendra would become a part of the new state Telangana.

     

    Consequently, Doordarshan has started planning production and transmission facilities that are similar to its Kendra in Hyderabad.

     

    Doordarshan has already taken an initiative to upgrade the existing facilities of Doordarshan Kendra at Vijayawada which presently has one 150 square metre studio and a teleport satellite uplinking facility.

     

    Doordarshan director general Tripurari Sharan and additional director general VK Jain recently visited the Vijayawada Kendra and discussed widespread plan for its upgradation with engineering and programme officers. Sharan asked officers to fast-track its upgradation plan and complete it in a time bound manner, directing Jain to personally monitor the progress.

     

    The DD Saptagiri channel running from Hyderabad will be renamed DD Telangana and the DD Saptagiri channel will be retained for residual state of Andhra Pradesh.

  • PHD Chamber to join hands with I&B Ministry to launch campaign about piracy

    PHD Chamber to join hands with I&B Ministry to launch campaign about piracy

    NEW DELHI: Information and Broadcasting Minister Prakash Javadekar today welcomed the initiative taken by the PHD Chamber of Commerce and Industry to launch a joint campaign to create awareness about video and software piracy.

     

    The Minister was responding to an offer by the Chamber whose Media and Entertainment Committee members met today.

     

    While they thanked the Minister for removing service tax from television advertising, they said the music and film industry was facing a major problem because of illegal piracy.

     

    The delegation offered its services for an awareness campaign in this regard among general public through conferences, awareness campaigns and painting competitions among school children.

     

    The delegation was led by Chamber president Sharad Jaipuria with vice presidents Alok Sri Ram  and Media and Entertainment Committee chairman Mukesh Gupta, ED Saurabh Sanyal and senior secretary Yogesh Srivastava.

  • Over Rs 400 crore spent on Bharat Nirman campaign in three years

    Over Rs 400 crore spent on Bharat Nirman campaign in three years

    NEW DELHI: The United Progressive Alliance (UPA) spent a total amount of Rs 411.91 crore between 2011-12 and 2014-15 through the Information and Broadcasting Ministry to publicise Bharat Nirmal programmes.

     

    The amount spent in 2014-15 was only Rs 32.23 crore as against Rs 188.88 crore for the previous year. The amount spent in 2011-12 was Rs 87.78 crore and that in 2012-13 was Rs 103.02 crore.

     

    I&B Minister Prakash Javadekar told the Lok Sabha today that there was no plan at present to undertake any campaign under the umbrella of Bharat Nirman.

     

    The promotion through I&B Ministry was part of the media outreach strategy under the plan sub-scheme titled “People’s Empowerment through Development Communication Conception and Dissemination” by the Directorate of Advertising and Visual Publicity.

     

    While a sum of Rs 48 crore was spent covering 6444 newspapers and Rs 96.19 crore was spent on 125 television channels in 2013-14, no campaign was launched in 2014-15 as the Model Conduct had come into force in view of the General Elections in May.

     

    I&B Ministry sources said that the amount of Rs 32.23 crore for 2014-15 related to old bills.

  • Telecast of DD to be made mandatory on all cable and DTH platforms: Javadekar

    Telecast of DD to be made mandatory on all cable and DTH platforms: Javadekar

    NEW DELHI: Telecast of Doordarshan will be made mandatory on every direct to home and cable network, according to Information and Broadcasting Minister Prakash Javadekar.

     

    Speaking at a press meet in Ahmedabad, Javadekar said his aim was to make Doordarshan and All India Radio the first choice for viewers.

     

    Javadekar invited suggestions from the public in this regard. “I held a meeting with local officials and asked them to come with ideas to improve the content of DD and AIR,” he said. “To do that, we have decided to invite suggestions from people about what they would like to watch and listen,” he added.

     

    “We are taking steps to make Doordarshan channels available in all cable TV as well as direct to home platforms.”

     

    He stressed on the need to convert the Medium Wave (MW) frequency of Akashvani to FM, “as a majority of radio sets catch only FM signals these days.”

     

  • Terrestrial TV to be opened for private participation: Javadekar

    Terrestrial TV to be opened for private participation: Javadekar

    MUMBAI: Is the Modi government likely to pry open terrestrial television to private broadcasters?  Terrestrial TV has been the exclusive turf of public broadcaster Prasar Bharati, apart from a short stint where it leased out a programming block to Ozzie broadcaster Kerry Packer around 12-13 years ago.

    It is quite likely to, if one goes by the response of Information & Broadcasting Minister Prakash Javadekar to a question in the Parliament on 9 July. PTI quotes him as saying that Doordarshan is digitising its analogue terrestrial network.

    “Consequently the number of digitised channels would go up. DD would thereafter be in a position to invite private free-to-air TV channels for meaningful business plan in this regard,” he added.

    This was one of the options provided by the Sam Pitroda committee earlier this year.  The committee had recommended two options: one to totally move the pubcaster to satellite transmission via DD Direct. And, two, to upgrade its analogue terrestrial network to DVBT2 to meet its need to deliver content meeting both national and regional coverage needs.

    The report had recommended that DD could opt for selected use of DVB-T2/DVB-NGH terrestrial  technology in partnership with private players if commercially feasible in order to enhance the capacity of each transmitter to eight to 10 channels.

    The committee, however, had cautioned that DD would have to transform itself into two separate companies handling content creation and managing infrastructure to allow private participation. Additionally, it had added that DD would have to provide a subsidy to increase the affordability of DVBT2/DVB-NGH receivers as they are not readily available at affordable prices in India.

    Even the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India had in 2005 recommended that terrestrial television should be thrown open to private sector participation as is the case in most countries.

  • We will digitise DD’s analogue terrestrial network: Prakash Javadekar

    We will digitise DD’s analogue terrestrial network: Prakash Javadekar

    MUMBAI: Information and Broadcasting Minister Prakash Javadekar has told the Lok Sabha that the government is serious about its plan of digitising Doordarshan’s analogue terrestrial network.

     

    With this, according to Javadekar, Doordarshan will be able to invite private free-to-air TV channels for meaningful business plans.

     

     Responding to questions in the Lok Sabha on 9 July, Javadekar said that the Ministry has granted permission for 795 channels to uplink from the country in both the news and non-news genres.

     

    Surprisingly, even after the huge number of permissions granted, close to 235 applications are still pending for inter-ministerial clearances. Javadekar said that in the last three years and the current year, the Ministry had received 200 applications for new channels in various languages, of this 105 were for Malayalam and Kannada language channels.

     

    He also reaffirmed the government’s stance on the launch of ‘Krishi’ channel for the farmers.  The same was also proposed by the Finance Minister Arun Jaitely in the Lok Sabha as he tabled Budget 2014.

  • Government to invest Rs 100 crore in Kisan Television

    Government to invest Rs 100 crore in Kisan Television

    MUMBAI:  The much awaited budget from the new Finance Minister Arun Jaitley has begun and the first announcement for the media industry is in the form of the proposed new TV channel for farmers- Kisan Television dedicated to the interests of the agriculture and allied sector.

     

    While presenting the Budget 2014 in the Parliament, Jaitley stated that the government will be investing Rs 100 crore for the channel that will give real time information on new farming techniques, water conservation, organic and farming etc.

     

    A few weeks ago, Information and Broadcasting Minister Prakash Javadekar had stated that Kisan Television will be launched soon and Jaitley’s announcement reaffirms the government’s commitment to it.

     

    The 24 hour channel, to be called DD Kisan, is being worked upon with the help of Prasar Bharati. Prior to winning the election, BJP had stated that if it came to power, it would explore setting up of regional Kisan TV channels.

     

    Soon after the announcement, Zeel MD and CEO Punit Goenka tweeted “Kisan TV for farmer education was a good one!!”

     

    Added PricewaterhouseCoopers leader- entertainment & media practice India Smita Jha, “Announcement of launch of Kisan TV and Aruna Prabha TV are also welcome in the context of their respective situations but hope these channels are commercially viable and do not add further burden to Public Service Broadcaster, Prasar Bharati, which is already under severe financial pressure.”