NEW DELHI, Dec 28: Simplification of the annual renewal process for existing TV channels to promote ‘Ease of Doing Business’, announcement of a New Print Media policy to increase transparency and accountability in release of Government Ads through DAVP and promoting healthy development of cinema as a medium of communication through various film festivals were among the achievements of the Information and Broadcasting Ministry during 2016.
The year also saw an increase in the reach of FM Radio all over India with completion of the first and second batch of FM Phase 3 auctions. The auctions for the second batch were held recently for 266 channels in 92 cities.
The Government this year announced Simplification of Annual Renewal process for existing TV channels as part of “Ease of Doing Business”. Under the policy, broadcasters, who have been given the permission for
Uplinking or Downlinking, can continue their operations by simply paying the annual permission fee up to 60 days before the due date, which by itself will be treated as permission for continuation of the channel for a further period of one year.
A total of 170 channels have been given licences from June 2014 till December 2016. Of these, 25 licences are given to News channels and 145 licences have been to non-news channels.
The year also witnessed a lot of progress on Digitisation of Cable TV channels, which aims to bring the entire country under the Digital Addressable System.
The deadline for implementation of Phase III of digitisation was December 31 , 2015 while for Phase IV it is December 31.
However, recently the Ministry has extended the cutoff date for Phase IV to March 31, 2017.
The New Print Media Advertisement Policy for DAVP announced during the year aims to promote transparency and accountability in issuing of Government advertisements in print media and weeding out ghost/irregular newspapers.
The Policy introduces a New Marking System and Circulation Verification Procedure for empanellment of Newspapers/Journals with DAVP. A three-member committee to address the issues related to Content Regulation in Government Advertising has been constituted as per the directions of Supreme Court. The committee is chaired by Mr BB Tandon, Former Chief Election Commissioner of India.
Steps towards healthy development of Indian cinema as a medium of communication were undertaken during the year.
These included the organisation of various film festivals such as Swachh Bharat Short Film Festival, Iranian Film Festival , European Union Film Festival , the first-ever BRICS Film Festival held in Delhi., Children’s Film Festival and the Patriotic Film Festival with theme Azaadi 70 Saal, Yaad Karo Qurbani .
The Swachh Bharat Short Film Festival organised by the NFDC on behalf of the Ministry, received over 4,000 entries from across the country in various Indian languages on the theme of the Swachh Bharat Mission. The key objective of the Festival was to generate awareness, inspire people and include them as stakeholders in the Swachh Bharat Abhiyaan. Top 20 films selected were felicitated.
The Ministry utilised the platform of Film Festivals to promote India’s endeavour of being a Filming Destination and Soft Power. In this regard, various Country specific Film Festivals have been organised to promote the possibility of collaboration in the Films Sector.
These include Festivals like the Iranian Film Festival , where 14 films of the acclaimed and award winning film makers from Iran were screened; the European Union Film Festival where a total of 23 movies from the European Union countries were showcased and the first ever BRICS Film Festival held in Delhi where 20 movies, four each from the five participating countries were selected for the screening competition.
As part of its efforts to promote the medium of cinema in the country, the Government announced to provide financial assistance for promotional activities to the films which would be selected in any competition section of an International Film Festival or being India’s official nomination to the Academy Awards under Foreign Film Category.
Steps were also taken to provide single window clearance to facilitate film shootings by foreign film makers in India. FFO units have been set up under NFDC premises in November 2015 at Mumbai, Delhi, Chennai and Kolkata. Sixty-six foreign films were given permissions in 2015-16.
To promote India as a Filming destination, the Information and Broadcasting Ministry has also introduced a cash component of Rs 1 Crore in the Most Film Friendly State Award.
The ministry also started Film Heritage Mission (NFHM), a new Plan Scheme to restore, digitise and archive films and filmic material through National Film Archive of India. In one of its rare discoveries, the NFAI acquired 20.43 minutes of the Indian Silent Film Bilwamangal (1919), thanks to the wonderful cooperation of the Cinematheque Francaise. It is after 21 years that a silent film has entered NFAI vaults.
To remove the discrepancies in the process of film certification and to meet the objections over the unnecessary cuts affected by the central board for film certification, the Government constituted the Shyam Benegal Committee for holistic interpretation of the provisions of the Cinematograph Act/ Rules.
The committee, headed by filmmaker Shyam Benegal and comprising filmmaker Rakeysh Om prakash Mehra among others, has submitted its recommendations to the Ministry which are expected to provide a holistic framework to the process of film certification in the country.
Also launched during the year was Akashvani Maitree, an exclusive service for Bangladesh and Bengali diaspora launched by All India Radio, Baluchi Multimedia website and Mobile App for greater people to people contact.
In a major push to Community Radio movement in the country, the Ministry has increased the subsidy for setting up of Community Radio Stations from 50 per cent to 90 per cent in the North Eastern States and 75 per cent in other States, subject to a maximum limit of Rs 7.5 lakhs.
A special five minutes bulletin on ‘Swachhta’ has been started on all weekdays. The bulletin includes important news stories, people’s initiative and feature stories related to Swachh Bharat Abhiyan along with a Swachhta Tip.
The Ministry organised a two-day State Information Ministers Conference (SIMCON) in December, 2016 to promote the vision of One Nation and Cooperative Federalism.
The spirit and philosophy of Cooperative Federalism entails every state as an equal partner and stakeholder in the Nation’s development process. The interactive forum involving States was revived after a gap of 7 years, keeping in mind the importance of Communication in Governance.
The theme of the conference was Reform, Perform and Transform: A New Dimension of Communication.
Also announced during the year was a new Business Policy for the Publication Division: The objective of the policy is to streamline business practices in line with the contemporary trends prevailing in publications industry.
The policy promotes online readership by pricing the digital version of the publication at 75 per cent of the price of the printed version. It acknowledges the growing prospects of e-commerce and promotes sale of e- books of the division through online platforms.
As part of efforts to give wide publicity to the schemes launched by the Government, the Ministry launched 360 degree Multimedia Campaigns. The activities under the campaigns range from holding of Press conferences, telecast/broadcast of special programmes on DD and AIR with experts, Multimedia Exhibitions, social media campaigns using Infographics, animations, graphic plates, short videos, live streaming of events /conferences.
Some of these initiatives in this regard include holding of events like International Yoga Day, Swachh Bharat , Make in India, Skill India, Digital India and Rashtriya Ekta Diwas.
An endeavour has been made to ensure peoples’ participation in Government Advertising through Crowd- Sourcing. The advertisement for important events is being designed on the crowd sourcing model. An online contest was also organised by Social Media Cell of the Ministry as a part of 67th Republic Day celebrations.
The year also saw the release of books in Rashtrapati Bhavan published by the Publications Division. Some of the books are “Around India’s First Table: Dining and Entertaining at Rashtrapati Bhavan”, “The Arts and Interiors of Rashtrapati Bhavan: Lutyens and Beyond”, “Discover the Magnificent World of Rashtrapati Bhavan”, “A Work of Beauty: The Architecture and Landscape of Rashtrapati Bhavan”, “First Garden of the Republic: Nature in the President’s Estate” among others.
A book on Courts of India- Past to Present published by the Publications Division under the guidance of the Supreme Court was also released.
This year, the Diploma course in Urdu Journalism at the Indian Institute for Mass Communication was upgraded to the level of PG Diploma in Urdu Journalism of nine months duration from the current academic session i.e. 2016-17.
As a new initiative, PIB Regional Units are organising “Vartalap” in various regions across the country with regional media to interact and create awareness about the new developmental initiatives/schemes of the government. Regional Editors Conferences were organised in Jaipur and Chennai. (UNI)
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