New Delhi: With clearance to twenty-one more private satellite television channels in the past two months, the total number has risen to 890 of which news and current affairs channels number 401.

The Information and Broadcasting Ministry has said it had given permission to 1028 channels but later cancelled permission to 138.

With five more channels getting permission in May, the number of general entertainment channels is 489 as on 31 May.

Twenty channels including seven news channels have been permitted to uplink from India but not downlink within the country and there has been no change in this category.

A total of 774 channels including 395 GECs are allowed to uplink and downlink in the country while 96 including 81 GECs are uplinked from overseas but allowed to downlink into TV homes in the country.

After 31 March, the news channels cleared are: News18 Goa, News18 Tamil Nadu, News18 Kerala, News18 Punjab, News18 J&K and News18 Assam/North East of the TV18 Broadcast Ltd; and ETV HD of Eenadu TV Pvt Ltd.

The Non-News channels cleared are & Youth HD and & Music from the Zee Group; Nationcast, NXT, ZAP, Powerplay and UPLEX from Viacom 18; DHAMMAL GUJJUU of Sab Global Entertainment Pvt Ltd; SIX 2 of Multi Screen Media Pvt Ltd,; Goodness TV of Goodnews Channel Pvt. Ltd; MK Tunes and MK Six of Madurai Krishan Network Pvt. Ltd; Sai Sabha of Sai Babha Network Pvt. Ltd; and Shubh Cinema of Shubh Media Pvt. Ltd

The Information and Broadcasting Ministry site (mib.nic.in) also contains the full details of the owners of these channels, the languages in which they will beam, and the date on which the clearance came. However, there are no details of channels denied permission.