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Tag: Rajya Sabha

  • Rajya Sabha clears sweeping ban on online money gaming despite opposition uproar

    Rajya Sabha clears sweeping ban on online money gaming despite opposition uproar

    NEW DELHI: The Indian parliament on Friday pushed through a controversial law banning the operation, facilitation and advertising of online money games, amid noisy opposition protests over the lack of debate.

    The Promotion and Regulation of Online Gaming Bill, 2025—passed by voice vote in the Rajya Sabha a day after clearing the Lok Sabha—makes online money gaming punishable with up to three years in prison and fines of as much as Rs 1 crore. Offences will be cognisable and non-bailable.

    Tabling the bill, electronics and IT minister Ashwini Vaishnaw likened money-gaming addiction to drug abuse and accused powerful vested interests of fuelling terror finance through gaming platforms. He said roughly 45 crore Indians had lost money online, with annual losses pegged at Rs 20,000 crore.

    The legislation bans all forms of online betting and gambling—from fantasy sports and poker to rummy, lotteries and other card games—and bars banks and payment providers from processing related transactions. 

    Advertising such services will invite up to two years’ jail and fines of Rs 50 lakh, while facilitating payments could mean three years in prison and Rs 1 crore in penalties. Repeat offenders face enhanced sentences of up to five years and Rs 2 crore in fines.

    Opposition leader Mallikarjun Kharge hit out at the government for forcing the bill through without discussion, even as union minister Kiren Rijiju said protests made a debate impossible.

    Vaishnaw stressed the bill distinguishes between harmful money games and esports. Speaking to ANI, he said the government aims to “promote and encourage the good parts” of online gaming, and to make India a hub for development through the planned Indian Institute of Creative Technologies.

    Prime minister Narendra Modi, addressing an NDA meeting, hailed the online gaming ban as a reform with “far-reaching impact”, while accusing the opposition of reducing the monsoon session to disruption.

    NDTV reported that the government will also act against “big people” attempting to sway opinion through media and social media campaigns against the ban.

  • Sansad TV’s YouTube channel restored after alleged hacking attempt

    Sansad TV’s YouTube channel restored after alleged hacking attempt

    Mumbai: The YouTube channel of Sansad TV ran into trouble on Tuesday after its telecast was suspended due to an alleged hacking attempt. According to the statement issued by Sansad TV, the YouTube channel got compromised due to ‘unauthorised activities by some scamsters’ on 15 February at 1 am, which also affected its live-streaming.

    Viewers who tried to watch the streaming were greeted with a disclaimer from YouTube stating, “This account has been terminated for violating YouTube’s community guidelines”.

    However, the channel was restored later in the evening. “Sansad TV’s YouTube channel has been restored. You can get back to all your favourite programmes on the channel,” it announced on Twitter.

     

     

    According to a statement issued by Sansad TV earlier in the day, the channel name was also changed to ‘Ethereum’ by the attacker. “SansadTV’s social media team promptly worked on it and got the channel restored by early morning around 3:45 hrs,” it stated.

    Indian Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT-in), the nodal agency for responding to cyber-security incidents in India had also reported the incident and alerted Sansad TV. Later on YouTube also started fixing the security threats permanently, the channel stated.

     

     

    The channel was launched by prime minister Narendra Modi in September last year after merging Lok Sabha TV and Rajya Sabha TV, and shows the live streaming of the Parliament sessions.

  • No decline in DD viewership in recent years: I&B ministry

    No decline in DD viewership in recent years: I&B ministry

    Mumbai: There has been no decline in viewership of Doordarshan in recent years, the union information and broadcasting minister Anurag Thakur told Rajya Sabha on Thursday. Viewership of DD has been unaffected in spite of the increase of private TV channels in the broadcasting space during the past years and fragmentation of audience due to many private TV channels relaying Doordarshan’s live content, he noted. 

    The Rajya Sabha queried the I&B minister whether DD viewership has been declining sharply in recent years. It also asked for the trend of revenue generation at DD through advertisements during the last three years.

    Anurag Thakur supplied Broadcast Audience Research Council (Barc) data for 22 subscribed standard definition DD channels, out of a total of 36, for the period between 2016 to 2021.  

    The minister also shared the commercial revenue earned by Doordarshan during the last three years from government and non-government advertising.

    The minister stated that public broadcaster Prasar Bharati had taken a number of steps to further increase the viewership of DD channels. This included launching dedicated sports, entertainment and news channels including DD Sports, DD Retro, DD India and DD News. Prasar Bharati also aired the iconic shows “Ramayan” and “Mahabharat” during the 2020 lockdown that led to a record high in TV viewership.

    Apart from its TV network, DD has ensured that major live events are also live-streamed on its digital platforms. Recently during Republic Day 2022, it garnered 2.6 crore views on its YouTube platform in comparison to 2.3 crore views on its TV network. “It is evident that the Doordarshan’s viewership on YouTube platform alone was greater than its TV viewership as reported by Barc,” noted Anurag Thakur.  

    DD visuals were also aired by more than 180 channels across the country from 9:30 a.m to 12 p.m. This further amplified the TV viewership of Republic Day 2022 and led to more than 3.2 billion TV viewing minutes of consumption as per Barc data.

  • Barc reaching out broadcasters to inform about new reporting standards: I&B minister

    Barc reaching out broadcasters to inform about new reporting standards: I&B minister

    Mumbai: The minister of information and broadcasting Anurag Thakur told the Lok Sabha that the Broadcast Audience Research Council (Barc) India is reaching out to all constituents to sufficiently inform and educate them about new augmented data reporting standards and would require eight weeks’ time to resume the reporting of individual news channels.

    In October 2020, Barc announced that it would cease publishing weekly individual ratings of news and niche genres for an initial period of 8-12 weeks. The I&B ministry directed Barc to maintain the status quo in February 2021 in view of alleged reports of manipulation of rating data and review the whole ecosystem of publishing of ratings.

    A committee was instituted under the chairmanship of Prasar Bharati CEO Shashi Shekhar Vempati which made recommendations on strengthening corporate governance and bolstering technical oversight of the existing rating agency.

    “In the spirit of the recommendations of the above-said TRP Committee and Trai, various steps on corporate governance and on streamlining of processes and their transparency have been taken by Barc,” said Anurag Thakur. “The management involvement in the rating generation process has been institutionally removed. The Oversight and Technical Committees within Barc have been strengthened for data validation and methodology. The access protocols for data have also been revamped and tightened. Notwithstanding the existing processes put in place by Barc, reforms are a continuous process and policy prescriptions as may be required are made by the government from time to time.”

    “After review of the steps taken by Barc on corporate governance and on streamlining of processes and their transparency etc. Barc had been asked on 12 January to resume the release of the news ratings,” he added.

  • I&B ministry imposes additional penalties for violation of programme code

    I&B ministry imposes additional penalties for violation of programme code

    Mumbai: The minister of information and broadcasting, Anurag Thakur has informed the Rajya Sabha that there have been 37 instances between March 2005 and June 2021 where broadcasters were prohibited the transmission and re-transmission of a channel for a specified time period, or permission to downlink the channel was cancelled, due to violation of the programme code.

    The information and broadcasting minister was asked to give the status of Cable TV Networks Amendment (Regulation) Bill, 2020 which proposed to increase the penalties for violation of the Programme Code. He was also asked whether the government had imposed a monetary penalty or prohibited the transmission of a channel under the relevant provisions of the Cable TV Networks Amendment (Regulation) Act for violation of the Programme Code.

    “No monetary penalty has been imposed for the violation of Programme Code,” noted Thakur.

    The programme code comes under the Cable TV Networks (Regulation) Act, 1995 and Cable Television Networks Rules, 1994 contains broad guidelines related to content broadcast on private television channels.

    The matter of violation of the programme code and advertising code has been addressed by amending the rules vide government gazette notification number G.S.R. 416(E) on 17 June so as to include a complaint redressal mechanism by the broadcaster which prescribes the specific actions that can be taken by the central government for such violations.

    As per the amendments, if the government is satisfied that the programme of any channel is not in conformity with the programme code, it may, after giving an opportunity of hearing to the cable operator, and by an order in writing, prohibit the transmission or re-transmission of any such channel or programme in accordance with the provisions of section 20 of the Act.

    The rules provide for a three-tiered complaint redressal mechanism; Level I self-regulation by the broadcaster, level II self-regulation by self-regulating bodies of the broadcasters, and level III oversight mechanism by the central government.  

    The I&B minister had previously informed the Parliament on Friday that the government took action against 126 violations of the programme code between 2018 and 2021.

  • Govt ad spends on print down 51 per cent from last year

    Govt ad spends on print down 51 per cent from last year

    New Delhi: Print publications received a hard wallop with the outbreak of Covid2019 last year – circulation dropped, subscribers cut ties, and revenue dried up as advertisers tightened their purse strings. Now, it has emerged that the government, which is one of the biggest newspaper advertiser, slashed its spends on the medium by more than half during 2020.

    The NDA-led Centre spent roughly Rs 62 crore on print advertisements to publicise its activities and programmes during the pandemic ravaged 2020-21, which is 51 per cent down from last year. In 2019-20, the government’s total ad spend was Rs 128.96 crore.

    The information was shared by union minister for information and broadcasting Prakash Javadekar in the Rajya Sabha on Monday.

    According to the data, the government had spent Rs 430.75 crore in publishing print advertisements in 2015-16, which came down to Rs 366 crore in 2016-17, and increased substantially to Rs 462.2 crore in 2017-18. However, the downward trend began in 2018, when the print ad spends decreased from Rs 301 crore in 2018-19 to Rs 128.96 crore in 2019-20 and further shrunk to Rs 62 crores last year.

    The plummeting ad spends by the government come at a time when the print industry is struggling to survive the pandemic’s severe blow. Print media thrives on advertisement expenditure of industries including e-commerce, automobiles, and BFSI, which were also impacted by the lockdown. Many businesses ended up pulling out advertisements, as part of budget cuts and also due to a drastic fall in the circulation of newspapers and magazines. The prolonged lockdown restrictions forced several publications to limit the number of pages, shut their editions and resort to layoffs .

    Last year, the Indian Newspaper Society (INS) had also raised concerns over the rising newsprint and logistics costs and increasing preference for online content.

    The data shared also showed that the Centre spent relatively less money on advertising its programmes and policies on private satellite and cable TV channels compared to 2017. The overall ad spend on television came down from Rs 123 crores in 2018-19 to 25.68 crores in 2019-20 and just Rs 11 crores in 2020-21. The ad spends on social media remained a miniscule part of the total budget, the data indicated.

    The Bureau of Outreach and Communication (BOC), which acts as an advisory body to the government on its media strategy, undertakes information, education, and communication (IEC) campaigns of the government through its empanelled media platforms as per the policy guidelines.

    Javadekar also informed the Parliament that BOC adopted a media mix approach and it is also using digital cinema, internet websites, SMS, and social media along with print, radio and television advertisements for dissemination. He said that BOC had also conducted an all-India survey – an impact assessment study of multi-media campaigns covering 722 districts to study the impact of the campaigns run on various media platforms. 

    When asked if the government plans to increase the ad spend over the next few years, the I&B minister said, “BOC releases advertisements keeping in view the campaign requirements, target audience, availability of funds, and preferences indicated by the client departments.”

  • Internet should not become the monopoly of few, IT minister tells Rajya Sabha

    Internet should not become the monopoly of few, IT minister tells Rajya Sabha

    New Delhi: Days after the government passed sweeping regulations for social media platforms, union information technology minister Ravi Shankar Prasad told the Rajya Sabha on Thursday that any attempt to create ‘imperialism of the internet' by a few companies would not be tolerated.

    Prasad was speaking during the question hour on the issue of the ban imposed on certain Twitter accounts. The NDA-led Centre was locked in a tussle with the social media giant over removal of certain accounts related to the ongoing farmers’ protests. Reiterating his earlier statements made in the Parliament, Prasad said the government welcomes dissent, but cannot allow misuse or abuse of social media.

    Responding to a question raised by Congress legislator G C Chandrashekhar on the issue of arrest of climate activist Disha Ravi in the 'toolkit' document case, Prasad said India is proud to have nearly 140 crore social media users. LinkedIn, WhatsApp, Twitter, Facebook have empowered ordinary Indians and they are free to do business in India, he maintained.

    "The government welcomes dissent. The issue is not of the use of social media, the issue is of abuse and misuse of social media. The Internet is a powerful invention of the human mind, but it should not become the monopoly of a few. We have taken a position, any attempt to create imperialism of the internet by few companies is not acceptable”, said the union minister, who had also told the Parliament on Wednesday that the IT ministry had no proposal to set up a regulator for social media.

    The Centre has recently notified Information Technology (Intermediaries Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules, 2021 which apply to Facebook, Twitter, Google, and others. The guidelines enable the setting up of grievance redressal mechanisms and make these platforms more pliable in assisting government agencies in the investigation as well as taking down unlawful or fake content. The guidelines also make it mandatory for these platforms to identify the originator of a message that authorities consider to be anti-national and against the security and sovereignty of the country.

    According to several experts, the laws though ‘well-intended’ could undermine the principles of open and accessible Internet and violate the right to privacy and free speech of users, particularly in the absence of robust data protection law.

  • Enact law to make FB, Google pay for news: BJP’s Sushil Modi in Rajya Sabha

    Enact law to make FB, Google pay for news: BJP’s Sushil Modi in Rajya Sabha

    MUMBAI: The ball set rolling in Australia to make the big tech pay news publishers for their content has finally reached the Indian Parliament. Senior BJP leader Sushil Kumar Modi on Wednesday demanded in the Rajya Sabha that India should take a cue from the land down under and enact a law that would make tech giants like Facebook and Google pay local publishers for news content. 

    Raising the issue through a Zero Hour mention, the former deputy chief minister of Bihar said, “The government must make Google, Facebook and YouTube pay print and news channels for the news content they are using freely,” as reported by PTI. He cited the Australian Parliament’s move to pass the world’s first law last month to ensure news media businesses are fairly remunerated for the content they generate.

    This comes at a time when traditional news media are facing a serious financial crunch, in part due to the Covid2019 pandemic and with a large chunk of their earnings from advertisements going to these tech giants. 

    “I would urge the government that the way they have notified Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code to regulate social media and OTT platforms, they should enact a law on the pattern of Australian Code so that we can compel Google to share its revenue with traditional media,” stated Modi. He went on to add that India should take the lead in making them pay a fair share of their earnings from domestically produced news content on the internet to the publishers.

    Significantly, in response, Rajya Sabha chairman M Venkaiah Naidu said the suggestion is “worth considering”.

    Modi pointed out that the traditional print and news broadcast media, whose content is freely available on platforms run by the tech giants, are passing through their worst phase in recent history as advertisements have shifted to tech platforms. “They are in deep financial crisis. Earlier, it was because of the pandemic and now it is because of tech giants like YouTube, Facebook and Google,” he pointed out.

    The traditional news media, Modi observed, makes heavy investments employing anchors, journalists and reporters who gather information, verify it and deliver credible news. But advertisement, which is their main source of revenue, has in the past few years shifted away from them with the advent of the tech giants.

    “Advertising earnings are going to these tech giants [and] because of this print media, news channels are passing through a financial crisis,” he asserted, adding, “I would urge [that] we should follow a country like Australia which has taken the lead by enacting a law — News Media Bargaining Code — by which they have compelled Google to share advertisement revenue with the news media.”

    Google threatened to blackout news from its portal but ultimately surrendered, the BJP leader noted. “Australia has set a precedent and now France and other European countries are making laws for advertisement revenue sharing,” Modi said.

    On February 24, the Australian Parliament passed a landmark legislation mandating global digital giants like Facebook and Google to pay for local news content. This has now facilitated investment worth millions of dollars by the tech behemoths in local content deals.

    It must be recalled that just last month, the Indian Newspaper Society (INS) had asked Google to compensate print publications for carrying their content online and share 85 per cent of the ad revenues.

  • Media needs ‘auto-correction’, guidelines to restore order: Venkaiah Naidu

    Media needs ‘auto-correction’, guidelines to restore order: Venkaiah Naidu

    NEW DELHI: Expressing concern over the future of journalism and the sanctity of news in the face of disruptive technological advances, vice president of India and Rajya Sabha chairman M Venkaiah Naidu urged all stakeholders to ensure credible journalism, since media is an effective tool of empowerment of people for informed public discourse.

    “While the democratisation and decentralisation that followed the rapid expansion of social media enabling freedom of expression are welcome, the world is witnessing the downside of it in the absence of self-regulation and protocols. In this era of saturated information and overabundance of news, the very news is getting devalued,” he pointed out. Naidu was speaking at the MV Kamat Memorial Endowment Lecture.  

    The vice president lamented the side effects of internet driven 'instant journalism' due to which the credibility of fact based journalism has taken a beating. He further noted that technology giants have emerged as algorithmic gatekeepers of information and the web has taken over as the main distributor of news. 

    In particular, he highlighted the financial implications for traditional media like the newspapers when their journalistic products are time and again leveraged by technology giants, who do not share the revenue back with them. 

    Some countries were taking measures to ensure revenue sharing by the social media behemoths like Google and Facebook to the print media. 

    "We also need to take a serious look at this problem and come out with effective guidelines and laws with a consensus to enable print media get their share from the huge revenues of the technology giants," Naidu emphasised. 

    Referring to the crisis situation being faced by the media and journalism for various reasons and uncertain future amidst disruptive changes, Naidu stressed that an ‘auto-correction’ is needed and in fact, inevitable for a better future. He suggested enabling guidelines and regulations for restoring order while maintaining he’s against any restrictive regulations.

    The media has always led the way in reporting and analysing the socio-political and economic transformation of the country. Naidu reminded mediapersons to be consistent in reporting such change instead of using different yardsticks for different periods. 

    He said, “I am not suggesting media to be like a chameleon. Media should use a standard set of reporting and analytical tools that capture the change without imposing respective positions. Media should not be seen by the public as discrediting the change that is happening since such a change is contrary to their long-held positions.” 

    Naidu further listed the concerns about media and journalism as issues relating to; freedom of press, censorship, flouting of norms of reporting, social responsibility of journalists, a decline in the values and ethics of journalism, yellow journalism, journalism of false crusades, reporting for profit, disinformation in the form of fake and paid news, disruptions caused by the internet and the future of media amidst these concerns and challenges.

    “Yellow journalism seeks to cloud the facts by resorting to eye-catching headlines and promotes distortion and misinformation. Journalism based on taking up false crusades as witnessed in the case of suicide of a film actor recently. Both are aimed at increasing readership and viewership and should be avoided,” he said.

    With the rapid rise and use of social media, wherein mobs can be gathered with a WhatsApp message and riots can be sparked off by a tweet, the former I&B minister stressed on the need to ensure sanity given the implications for social harmony, common good, peace, and national security. “Freedom of expression doesn’t mean unfettered outburst of anger and hate against each other that may lead to chaos,” Naidu remarked.

    He urged the media to be a part of the solution and not part of the problem since like every citizen, government and other stakeholders, media too, has a certain responsibility towards the nation.

  • Mathrubhumi Group MD MV Shreyams wins Rajya Sabha by-poll in Kerala

    Mathrubhumi Group MD MV Shreyams wins Rajya Sabha by-poll in Kerala

    NEW DELHI: Mathrubhumi Group MD MV Shreyams Kumar sailed to victory in the by-poll held for one vacant Rajya Sabha seat from Kerala. The voting was held at the Assembly building during its one-day session. 

    A two-time legislator, Shreyams Kumar won the Rajya Sabha seat held by his late father, MP Veerendra Kumar. The death of the 84-year-old media baron on May 28 had necessitated the by-poll. 

    Shreyams Kumar also dons the roles of Kerala Regional Committee chairman of Indian Newspaper Society, VP of News Broadcasters Association, and global vice president of International Advertising Association.