In the end it went through 21 days later than initially announced but the pieces appear to be falling in place for a strategic investor to come on board. Subhash Chandra‘s Zee Telefilms Ltd (ZTL), at its board meeting today, cleared a corporate restructuring proposal whereby 11 of its subsidiaries would either be merged with ZTL or wound up.

After this exercise is completed (expected to take six to eight months) there will remain only 12 companies under the ZTL umbrella. An official statement says the revised corporate structure will result in better utilisation of resources besides being simple and efficient from the point of view of compliance of tax laws, accounting and legal compliances.

The move by Zee Telefilms to further rationalise its large number of subsidiaries follows divestment of its stake last year in three subsidiaries ? Buddha Films LTD, Zee Sports LTD and Zee Publishing Ltd.

ZTL currently has eight wholly-owned subsidiaries in India including Patco, EL-Zee Television LTD, Siti cable, ZIML, e-Connect India, ZILS besides two regional channel companies in Dakshin Media LTD (Tamil) and Kaveri Entertainment LTD (Kannada).

Its overseas subsidiaries include Zee Multimedia Worldwide LTD British Virgin Islands (ZMWLBVI) which is the holding company of ZMWL Mauritius and others. ZTL holds 50 per cent stake each in Winterhealth Company LTD which is the holding company for Asia Today Ltd.

Other ZTL subsidiaries functioning abroad include Expand Fast Holding BVI (which is the broadcasting company for Zee Music, Alpha and English channels) and Zee Multimedia Worldwide, Mauritius.

Companies proposed to be wound up:
1. E-Connect India Ltd
2. Programme Asia Trading Company Ltd
3. Elzee Television Ltd
4. Kaveri Entertainment Ltd
5. Dakshin Media Ltd
6. Winterhealth Company Ltd, Mauritius
7. Hokushan Trading Ltd, Hong Kong
8. Expand Fast Holdings Ltd, BVI
9. Zee Multimedia Worldwide Ltd, BVI
10. Asia TV, USA
11. Zee TV SA (Proprietary) Ltd South Africa

Viewers, used to seeing reruns of popular soaps on DD Metro for the last six months, are likely to get a dose of fresh programming shortly.
Prasar Bharati has invited proposals from television and film producers for DD Metro under the sponsored category. The programmes to be allotted span all categories, including the prime time, mid prime time and non prime time slots, according to an advertisement released by the pubcaster in a daily on Friday. This is the second time DD is inviting programme proposals from independent producers after it broke up with Channel Nine Gold in September 2001. That was the last time Prasar Bharati approached independent producers for proposals.

The details regarding the slots, genres of programmes, revised telecast fees and admissibility of FCT are to be collected from local DD kendras in Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata, Chennai, Bangalore, Hyderabad, Lucknow, Jalandhar as also at Doordarshan Bhavan in New Delhi.

The proposals are to be submitted accompanied by the pilot episodes at the Facilitation Counter, Directorate General, Doordarshan, Doordarshan Bhavan, Copernicus Marg, New Delhi.

The deadline for applications is 5 pm on 22 March 2002.

The Indian Space Research Organisation‘s (Isro) latest multi-purpose geostationary satellite, Insat 3C, was declared operational today, providing a boost to the satellite communication capabilities of India.

Isro satellite centre director Dr PS Goel was quoted as telling reporters that the users were utilising the payloads and already three transponders had been handed over to them.

The Isro-built spacecraft had 24 normal C-band transponders, six extended C-band transponders, two S-band broadcast satellite transponders and a mobile satellite service transponder.

Goel ruled out leasing transponders to foreign organisations like Intelsat and added that there is already a large commitment from Indian users.

The Insat-3C and Insat-3A, planned to be launched later this year, are targeted at domestic users whereas Insat-3C was mainly built for India coverage.

He said the Isro would soon discuss with Arianespace to fix a launch date for Insat-3A.

Indicating that Isro might embark on building satellites for other countries after the completion of the Insat-3E project, Dr Goel said the Department of Space‘s marketing agency had already initiated talks with some in this regard.

All the systems of Insat-3C have been performing as per predictions. The satellite has 488 kg fuel left on board which will be sufficient for its design life of 12 years. The satellite is intended to continue the services of Insat-2DT and Insat-2C which are nearing the end of their life besides improving and augmenting the Insat system capacity.

Insat 3C geostationary at 74 East
Insat-3C in geostationary orbit, solar arrays deployed
Isro on a high as Insat-3C put in successful orbit