Broadcasters and sections of the television industry who were just about heaving a sigh of relief that the Cable TV amendment on conditional access, proposed by information and broadcasting minister Sushma Swaraj, would have to wait until the Monsoon session of parliament to get cleared, may have relaxed too soon.
The latest news is that while Swaraj is in Cannes pushing the film Indian industry‘s cause at the international film festival there, hectic activity is taking place in the I&B ministry to push it through as an ordinance by next week.

The I&B ministry‘s pitch: with an Indo-Pak conflict in the offing, the government needs to get a handle on television channels which had given it a bad name during the Gujarat carnage.

Swaraj had almost single-handedly managed to get the bill listed on the last day‘s agenda of the Rajya Sabha last week at the last minute but a lot of behind the scenes manoeuvring by another minister ensured that the CAS amendment could not be taken up for discussion.

Swaraj is expected to return from Cannes by the end of the week.

Software and film animation major Padmalaya Telefilms Limited has declared its unaudited financial results for the year ended 31 March 2002.
The net sales of the company which was Rs 474.82 million for the year ending 2001 has increased by 41 per cent to Rs 669.70 million.

The total expenditure for the same period has gone up by 35 per cent from Rs 330.13 million in the year 2001 to Rs 446.13 million.

Net profit has increased by 23 per cent from Rs 96.92 million in 2001 to Rs 119.36 million in March 2002.

While the net profit after extraordinary income has gone up only by 14 per cent from Rs 106.57 million in 2001 to Rs 121.85 million for the year ended March 2002. The reason for decrease in percentage increase in the net profit after extraordinary income is the decrease in extraordinary income from Rs 14.06 million to Rs 2.5 million.

For the fourth quarter ended March 2002, Padmalaya Telefilms reported sales turnover of Rs 121.6 million and net profit of Rs 24.3 million. Sales were down by 31 per cent from Rs 176.29 million to Rs 121.58 million.

When last reports came in the share was trading at Rs 138.50. The share prices were stable as good results were expected from the company.