I&B Ministry
Day 16: Bidding slow for FM Phase III as winning price touches Rs 1090 crore
NEW DELHI: Bidding has begun to slow down though the number of channels being bid for has gone up on the sixteenth day of the e-auction for the first batch of FM Phase III cities. The cumulative provisional winning price touched Rs 1090 crore at the end of the 64th round.
With this, a total of 92 channels in 56 cities became provisional winning channels against their aggregate reserve price of about Rs 451 crore.
Thus the summation of provisional winning prices surpassed the cumulative reserve price of the corresponding 92 channels by Rs 638.71 crore or 141.5 per cent.
The cumulative provisional winning price exceeded the total reserve price of the first batch of 135 FM channels in 69 existing cities – Rs 550.18 crore – by almost 98.1 per cent.
The Auction Activity Requirement rose to 100 per cent, after being 90 per cent after the 37th round on 7 August.
The thirteen cities for which bids have still not come are Asansol, Gulbarga, Mangalore, Mysore, Puducherry, Rajahmundry, Siliguri, Tiruchy, Tirunveli, Tirupati, Tuticorin, Vijaywada and Warangal.
The demand in most cities fell by up to three per cent and by four per cent below the excess demand at the price in 60th round in Hyderabad.
The Percentage Price Increment (in INR) applicable for the Next Clock Round was just one in Bengaluru, Chandigarh, Cochin, Guwahati, Jodhpur, Kanpur, Mumbai and Nashik.
The highest provisional winning price in Delhi remained the same for the second consecutive day at Rs 169.16 crore (for just one channel), but rose marginally in Mumbai at Rs 114.66 crore (for two channels) and Bengaluru with Rs 109.25 crore.
Among cities recording more than Rs 10 crore, it rose marginally in Cochin at Rs 14.18 crore and Nasik at Rs 10.72 crore.
Chennai at Rs 53.38 crore; Ahmedabad at Rs 42.68 crore, Pune at Rs 42.03 crore, Chandigarh at Rs 19.04 crore, Jaipur at Rs 28.34 crore, Hyderabad at Rs 18 crore, Patna at Rs 17.89 crore and Lucknow at Rs 14 crore remained static.
I&B Ministry
Press Sewa Portal digitises 1.5 lakh records, streamlines periodical registrations: MIB
Online system spans 780 districts; Rs 5.6 crore penalties, 88,315 titles cancelled
NEW DELHI: India’s print media registry has quietly moved from dusty files to digital dashboards. The government has digitised more than 1.5 lakh historical records of newspapers and periodicals and shifted registrations fully online through the Press Sewa Portal.
Introduced under the Press and Registration of Periodicals (PRP) Act, 2023, the portal now handles all applications for registering periodicals, replacing the earlier paper-heavy system created under the Press and Registration of Books Act, 1867, which has since been repealed.
The digital shift brings a wide range of services onto a single platform. Publishers can now register new periodicals, revise registrations, transfer ownership, file annual statements, pay penalties online and apply for circulation verification without navigating government offices.
As part of the rollout, specified authorities in 780 districts across India have been onboarded onto the platform. Since 1 March 2024, the portal has processed 11,081 applications and issued certificates across different categories.
The transition has also brought stronger compliance. According to government data, Rs 5.63 crore in penalties has been collected through the portal so far. States such as Maharashtra, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh account for some of the largest penalty collections.
At the same time, the authorities have carried out a major clean-up of inactive or non-compliant publications. A total of 88,315 periodicals have been cancelled nationwide, with Maharashtra, Uttar Pradesh and Delhi among the states reporting the highest number of cancellations.
The government says the system will continue to evolve based on feedback from users. The Press Registrar General of India (PRGI) regularly reviews suggestions to improve services and make compliance easier for publishers.
The full list of registered newspapers and periodicals is available on the PRGI website under the Registered Titles section.
The information was shared in a written reply in the Lok Sabha by minister of state for information and broadcasting and parliamentary affairs L Murugan, responding to a question from Damodar Agrawal.
