NEW DELHI: As of date, 11 new proposals for unlinking from India are under process, the government informed Rajya Sabha on 19 July.

Information and broadcasting minister Jaipal Reddy informed Rajya Sabha that as per the applications, all the proposals involve 100 per cent India equity and that no time frame can be indicated as to when the cases would be finally disposed off by the government.

Interestingly, the updated list of channels seeking uplink permission do not include those from Zee Telefilms (for ZeeBiz, a proposed business news channel) and SAB TV, which has said in the recent past that it would launch a news channel around the last quarter this year.

This can mean two things: either the clearance has been obtained or the plans have been put in the backburner for the time being.

The ones which are seeking government clearance, according to information laid in Rajya Sabha, include Falak TV Ltd's Falak and Al Hind TV, Twenty First Century News Room Productions Ltd's CAT TV, Ekonkar TV Pvt. Ltd's Ekonkar TV, Enter 10 TV Pvt. Ltd's Enter 10 channel, Shalom Communication Pvt. Ltd's Shalom TV, Senior Media Ltd's Senior 1 TV and Telugu Cinema Entertainment Pvt. Ltd's Telugu Cinema.

Meanwhile, in reply to another question, Reddy also told Rajya Sabha that Prasar Bharati (that manages Doordarshan and AIR) has no proposal to change the format and look of DD News.

"Prasar Bharati has informed that there is no such proposal to convert DD News into an entertainment channel as before," Reddy informed parliament.

Incidentally, Prasar Bharati board also got a part-time member in RN Bisaria. A selection committee headed by the vice-president of India did the selection of Bisaria.