I&B Ministry
FM Phase III Day 5: Delhi crosses Rs 100 crore as total bids touch Rs 714 crore
NEW DELHI: Even as twenty rounds of FM Phase III e-auction ended with four more rounds today, the provisional winning price for one channel in Delhi crossed the Rs 100 crore mark.
The bidding for this one channel in Delhi got Provisional winning price of Rs 105.23 crore, which is more than three times its reserve price of Rs 31.42 crore.
At the close of the fifth day of bidding, 80 channels in 55 cities became provisionally winning channels with cumulative provisional winning price of around Rs 714 crore against their aggregate reserve price of about Rs 391 crore.
Thus the summation of provisional winning prices exceeded the total reserve price of the first batch by about Rs 163.48 crore or 29.71 per cent. The total reserve price of the first batch of 135 channels in the existing 69 cities is Rs 550.18 crore.
The fifth day of the e-auction was hectic but there were still no bids in as many as 14 cities though the provisional winning price steadied at the Clock round Price in the other cases.
The Auction began for the fifth day with Auction Activity Requirement set at 80 per cent.
The demand over the price in many cities fell by up to three per cent below the aggregate demand.
The Percentage Price Increment (in INR) applicable for the Next Clock Round was five in the metros of Delhi and Mumbai, and in Bengaluru, Ahmedabad, Guwahati, Rourkela, Jaipur, Kolhapur, Nagpur, Nasik, Patna, and Rajkot and eight per cent in Bhubaneswar.
The highest Provisional winning price – the same as the Clock round price at the start of the twentieth round – was in Delhi – Rs 105.23 crore followed by Mumbai – Rs 82.72 crore with both showing sizeable increase compared to the first three days.
Among cities recording more than Rs 10 crore, it rose sizeably in Bengaluru – Rs 54.58 crore; Ahmedabad – Rs 30.33 crore; Pune – Rs 29.11 crore and Chennai – Rs 29.82 crore and marginally in Chandigarh at Rs 15.92 crore.
Hyderabad at Rs 18 crore, Lucknow at Rs 14 crore and Cochin at Rs 10.21 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.
