NEW DELHI: Indian pubcaster Doordarshan would have a new director-general as the transfer orders of the present incumbent, Dr SY Quraishi, has finally
been received by the information and broadcasting (I&B) ministry.
Quraishi would be move on, with a promotion as additional secretary, from DD to the steel ministry. The new posting order is likely to reach Quraishi on Monday, 1 September – which may as well be his last day with the national broadcaster.
The development was confirmed by both the I&B ministry officials and Quraishi himself.
“I have had a great stay at DD and would like to thank the media for being fair to me, even though I’ve had some heated exchanges with journalists on the performance of DD,” Quraishi told indiantelevision.com today evening in a parting message.
However, it is not immediately known who would succeed Quraishi, a full-fledged DG for Doordarshan after many years of ad-hocism.
As per a temporary arrangement, additional secretary (broadcasting) in the I&B ministry, Vijay Singh, may be given additional charge of DD as its DG — a route that former bureaucrat and Star India CEO, R. Basu, took to the corporate world from government service.
However, sources close to Singh say that the bureaucrat is not keen of taking on additional responsibility of DD as its DG, though he is a member on the board of Prasar Bharati, the autonomous body that oversees the functioning of DD and All India Radio.
Another option could be to give the charge of DD DG to Prasar Bharati CEO KS Sarma. He is also reported to be unwilling to shoulder this additional burden as he also doubles up as the DG of AIR at present. However, Prasar Bharati, still surviving on grant-in-aid from the government, has formally started an official hunt for a person to be DG, AIR.
Though officials are mum on the exit of Quraishi from DD, it is said that I&B minister Ravi Shankar Prasad was not happy with him, especially over the issue of re-launch of DD News channel that is slated to be back on air early November, if not on 2 October, which also happens to be the birth anniversary of the ‘Father of the Nation’, Mahatma Gandhi.
Tag: R. Basu
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Doordarshan to get new DG; Dr SY Quraishi transferred
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Star TV India senior executive quits
Urmila Gupta, one of the last executives brought in by former Star TV India head honcho R. Basu, has quit the company. Gupta was in charge of Star TV’s IndiaSkyB, direct to home project, when the government placed a ban on the sale of Ku-band reception equipment in December 1996.
Star TV continued to support ISkyB for nearly two years before deciding to pull the plug on it in 1999 and she was put in charge of strategic initiatives.
Her resignation comes at a time when the government is making all the noises about allowing multiple DTH operators.
In a note to her colleagues she says, “The last few years have seen dramatic changes both within Star and the external operating environment. It gives me a particularly great sense of satisfaction to see that a number of issues we fought for fiercely at different fora have finally been achieved. The draconian and restrictive Broadcasting Bill of 1997 has been replaced by the enlightened ICE bill which finally recognises technological convergence. The liberalisation in the IT and Telecom sector will surely get reflected in the Broadcasting sector. One can also see the end of the DTH tunnel. “
“Thanks to intensive “lobbying” in the last 3 years. The first Indian team had to bear the burnt of deep hostility and suspicion in those early pioneering years but at least now the company can get on with its business including perhaps DTH now . I am sure that the way in which KBC and Star under Peter’s dynamic leadership dominates the Indian TV scenario today, is only the start of greater things to come. “
She adds that she is hoping to pursue one of her long-cherished career goals “with a more hands on role in the creative aspects of production and media management.”
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Tara takes on a new look
The Broadcast Worldwide-promoted Tara regional channel bouquet has recently launched a collection of Hindi and Punjabi songs in partnership with Milestone Entertainment. The audio cassette has been titled Tara Rum Pum clearly indicating its Tara Punjabi lineage. The broadcaster intends to further release these cassettes in all the regional languages it is aired in. “This new exercise is targeted at increasing awareness of the channel,” says a source in Broadcast Worldwide.
For a long time the company’s survival has been speculated about, and one regularly has heard the buzz of a complete sellout, courtesy the tough times it has been passing through. But the management, led by promoter (and former Star TV India chairman) R. Basu, has managed to stay afloat.
In the current exercise he has halved the staff – especially the production team – strength to 200. And he is using the $800,000 worth of investment Broadcast Worldwide attracted from Mauritian company Crombie International to revive its flagging Punjabi, Marathi, Bengali and Gujarati channels and increase subscriber awareness.
Four new shows are being introduced on Tara Bangla. Among them: an intercollegiate quiz hosted by Barry O’Brien (brother of quiz master Derek), and a half hour women’s show Sukanaya, Both will be introduced in September.
Tara Marathi is being revamped with a new offering beginning 22 August called Snowcem Tara Ganesh Utsav. A panel of judges will be visiting selected community worship halls and homes with Ganesh pandals in Mumbai, Pune, Kolhapur, Aurangabad and Nasik. In Mumbai there will be five awards for the best Ganesh home and sarvajanik puja pandals, while the outstation ones will be given two prizes.
The entire activity will be broadcast in half hour slots on Tara Marathi from 30 August backed by on air and offline advertising .Simultaneously Tara Marathi will be launching a music cassette called Snowcem Tara Ganesh Utsav, which will comprise of songs sung by famous artistes, including Marathi singer Suresh Wadkar. Approximately 7,000 of these cassettes will be distributed free.
Around October, the second half phase of revival will be undertaken. Tara Punjabi and Tara Gujarati will be similarly revamped.
Broadcast Wordwide director business development Pradipto Sircar says that channels drive to generate classified advertising is working out fine, thank you. Rates are being hiked on Tara Marathi (from Rs 300 to RS 400) and on Bangla (RS 400 to RS 500) for a thirty second still ad. “This exercise of broadcasting classified ads is mainly to utilise the unique localised strengths of the channels. It is quite an unique concept for channels and is highly cost effective,” he says.