NEW DELHI: The government is speeding up its views on the recommendation of the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) that the government and its entities should not enter television broadcasting and distribution. The Information & Broadcasting (I&B) Ministry has set up an inter-ministerial committee to examine all reports received from Trai relating to television broadcasting services before the appropriate authority in the government takes policy decisions.

The committee, chaired by the additional secretary in the I&B Ministry, will have representatives from the Departments of Information Technology, Telecommunications, Economic Affairs, and Industrial Policy and Promotion apart from a few experts. The representatives from these departments will not be below the rank of a joint secretary.

The two joint secretaries (Broadcasting) in the I&B Ministry will serve as member secretaries depending on the subject being taken up by the committee.

The experts included in the committee are: chairman and managing director of the Broadcasting Engineering Consultants India Ltd, the Director-Generals of Doordarshan and All India Radio, and the Engineers-in-Chief of Doordarshan (DD) and All India Radio (AIR).

An I&B Ministry notice says the Committee may co-opt any number of experts considered necessary from time to time.

Recommendations of the committee on Trai?s reports relating to television broadcasting services would be communicated to the I&B secretary and thereafter, to the I&B Minister for further instructions.

Ministry sources told indiantelevision.com that first on the agenda of the committee will be the latest report of Trai that says central government, state governments, their entities or their joint ventures should not be allowed into broadcasting and distribution services.

The I&B Ministry is also preparing to seek opinion of Trai on surrogate ownership by political parties or politicians.

The earlier recommendation by Trai in 2008 that the government entities should not be allowed in distribution or broadcasting space was gathering dust. Now there seems to be a certain seriousness, evident from the fact that Tamil Nadu state-owned Arasu Cable TV Corp. Ltd. is yet to get a DAS (digital addressable system) licence. Arasu was earlier granted a licence for cable TV operations but with a caveat that it was conditional and depended on the government taking a final view on Trai recommendations.

Trai?s fresh recommendations will now be under the consideration of the inter-ministerial committee before the government lends its final approval. The issue gathers importance as several state governments have expressed intent to enter into the television broadcasting space.

NEW DELHI: Even as the Government has asked the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) to re-examine the issue of giving licences to state governments or central ministries for launching television channels, the Union Human Resource Development Ministry has sought permission to start fifty educational direct-to-home (DTH) TV channels.

HRD Ministry?s application has been referred by the Information and Broadcasting (I&B) Ministry to the Committee of Secretaries, which has in turn set up a Group of Secretaries to examine the need for modifications in the existing uplinking guidelines.

I&B Ministry sources told indiantelevision.com that applications were also received earlier from the Rural Development Ministry, and the West Bengal and Tamil Nadu governments seeking permission for launching their own television channels.

Under the existing rules, permission is only granted to companies registered under the Companies Act 1956 to own a television channel.

An HRD Ministry source said it was ironical that there is no provision for permission to educational channels, despite the Right to Education having become a Constitutional right.

Tewari had clarified last week that TRAI recommendations in 2008 against giving licences to states or central ministries to own television channels had neither been accepted nor been acted upon by his ministry.

NEW DELHI: The Telecom Regulatory of India had been asked to re-examine the issue of Central and state governments entering the broadcasting sector in view of the changed scenario, the Information and Broadcasting Minister Manish Tewari said.

Tewari said the earlier Trai report of 2008 had neither been accepted or acted upon by the Centre.

Speaking on the sidelines of the release of the Government of India calendar for 2013 brought out by the Directorate of Advertising and Visual Publicity, he said the scenario had changed with some state governments having huge stakes in broadcasting distribution and making demands to own TV channels. Even the Human Resource Development Ministry wanted its own channel.

He said the reference to Trai with regard to state TV and monopolies had been made with this in view as many states already had stakes in distribution.