GROUP OF MINISTERS SLATED TO MEET ON
DTH THIS WEEK
The coming week is likely to prove crucial
for DTH wannabes with the group of ministers slated to meet.
The group consisting of defence, communications, home, finance
and information and broadcasting ministers George Fernandes,
Jagmohan, L.K. Advani, Yashwant Sinha and Pramod Mahajan
has its task cut out for itself. Mahajan's (see following
interview) statement that the DTH ban issued a couple of
years ago should be lifted has run into opposition from
both business and political groups. Some pressure groups
have claimed that the ban is being lifted at Star TV's behest
while others have demanded that a regulatory structure be
created before giving DTH the go-ahead.
The decision to lift the ban, however,
has support from Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee who
believes that technology has to make its way into India.
The group of ministers will hence discuss the strategy to
be taken to get the DTH decision passed by an executive
order with a minimum of fuss and opposition from other political
and business groups. Mahajan is known to be quite emphatic
on drawing up programming and advertising codes, apart from
speeding up uplinking from Indian shores. The passage of
these regulations will decide the rapidity with which DTH
will be given the go-ahead.
