I&B Ministry
Pathrabe to replace Narain as FTII director; no decision on Gajendra Chauhan
NEW DELHI: Even as the protest against the appointment of actor Gajendra Chauhan as chairman of the Film and Television Institute of India (FTII) continues, former National Film Archives of India head Prashant Pathrabe has been appointed as the director of the Institute, replacing DJ Narain.
The Information and Broadcasting (I&B) Ministry decided to replace Narain, who is considered popular with students, despite reprimands from the government.
Meanwhile, the protest against Chauhan’s appointment as FTII chairman has been going on for over a month now and has even seen multiple actors entering the fray either for or against him.
Many Bollywood celebrities including Salman Khan and his father Salim Khan, Ranbir Kapoor, Anupam Kher and Rishi Kapoor have expressed their opinion on the issue, siding with students.
FTII students have been protesting against government interference, saying that Chauhan who had enacted the role of Yudhishtra in the mega series Mahabharata, lacked qualification for the important post.
On the other hand, Narain’s term was to end at the end of July. He is a 1990 officer of the Indian Information Service.
Pathrabe has been in the media field for more than 18 years, having previously worked in Doordarshan News and All India Radio News in Mumbai. He has also been spokesperson for Southern Command, Pune.
Pathrabe, a MBA from IIM Ahmedabad, joined the Indian Information Service in 1993 after a stint in public and private sector companies. He is currently with the Press Information Bureau in Pune.
I&B Ministry
Prasar Bharati sets EPG standards for DD Free Dish platform
New specs define 7-day guide, LCN mapping, and device compatibility.
MUMBAI: Your TV guide just got a backstage pass structured, scheduled, and far more in sync. Prasar Bharati has released detailed technical specifications for Electronic Programme Guide (EPG) services on DD Free Dish, laying down a standardised framework for how channels and programme information are organised and delivered. At the core of the update is a defined EPG data structure, covering genre-based categorisation, scheduling formats, and Logical Channel Numbering (LCN). The aim is simple: make navigation less guesswork and more guided experience across the platform’s over 40 million households.
The specifications also introduce a seven-day programme guide window for each channel, alongside clear rules for channel grouping and LCN mapping effectively deciding not just what you watch, but how easily you find it.
On the technical front, the document outlines requirements for Program Specific Information (PSI) and Service Information (SI), including descriptor usage across tables such as PAT, BAT and NIT. It further details service lists and network linkage parameters, giving OEMs and developers a clearer blueprint for integration.
Importantly, the framework is designed to work seamlessly with television sets equipped with in-built satellite tuners, enabling users to access DD Free Dish directly without additional hardware, an incremental but meaningful step towards simplifying access.
The platform will continue to operate on GSAT-15 transponders, using MPEG-4 compression and DVB-S2 transmission standards, ensuring continuity even as the interface evolves.
While largely technical, the move signals a broader push towards standardisation and user-friendly discovery in India’s free-to-air ecosystem because sometimes, the real upgrade isn’t what’s on screen, but how easily you get there.
