The current session of parliament will finally see the introduction of the long awaited communications convergence bill 2001. It only remains for the cabinet to meet to okay the finalised draft before it is introduced in parliament.

What will happen after the bill‘s introduction remains unclear as the main opposition Congress party has been stalling proceedings ever since the controversy over the Tehelka tapes corruption expose erupted. The Congress may refuse to allow the bill‘s passage or it may so happen that in the midst of all the bedlam in the house it gets cleared by default. Parliament reconvened on Monday and is in session until May 16.

The secretarial committee, headed by jurist Fali S Nariman, and made up of secretaries of the ministry of information and broadcasting, communications and law, on Saturday fine-tuned the revised draft bill, based on suggestions and directions received by the group of ministers on telecom and IT which had met last month, according to the Economic Times.

The group of ministers, headed by finance minister Yashwant Sinha, had apparently sifted through nearly 1,000 responses from the public and various associations on the draft Bill that had been put up on the Net.

The convergence bill, which has nearly 100 clauses, aims to have a common law to regulate broadcasting, telecommunications as well as the Internet.

In the normal course, the bill would be referred to a parliamentary panel on communications and then final parliamentary approval could be expected in the winter session late this year or during the budget session early next year.

Complex legislations are usually referred to lawmakers‘ committees for comments and changes before being presented to parliament for final approval.

The recently concluded cricket series between India and Australia generated Rs 400 million in airtime sales, Monica Shrivastav, in charge of airtime sales for Zee Telefilms, has said.

Zee Group company Buddha Films had signed a four-year deal last year for airtime sales rights covering nine international cricket series to be played in India. Zee purchased the rights from national broadcaster Doordarshan for a whopping Rs 4,500 million.

Coming up at the end of the year are two series which will feature England and Sri Lanka. If India‘s cricketers can again perform the way they did in this series, Zee just may have reason not to right off its commitment to Doordarshan. There was talk at one stage of Zee pulling out which would have invited an immediate forfeiture of Rs 700 million as bank guarantee.

Other news that should cheer Zee officials is Initiative Media president Ashish Bhasin‘s observation that cricket viewership was 25 per cent more than even the most optimistic estimates at the start of the series.