I&B Ministry
FICCI proposes a road map for M&E to Prakash Javadekar
NEW DELHI: The Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI) has called for constitution of a task force for improving screen density in India. This is also to ensure that entertainment tax is fully subsumed in the GST without creating a window for its levy at the local level.
In a road map presented to Information and Broadcasting Minister Prakash Javadekar, FICCI expressed confidence that this would provide the much-needed boost to the Media and Entertainment (M&E) sector.
A delegation led by FICCI president Sidharth Birla stated that the M&E sector had tremendous potential for dynamic growth and multiplier effect on employment generation without much spending from the public exchequer.
The ‘Policy Roadmap for the Media and Entertainment Sector in India’ comprises key recommendations for the television, film, print, radio, Animation, Visual Effects, Gaming & Comics (AVGC) and live events sectors.
In a move that will cause a lot of consternation among working journalists, the industry body has called for abolition of the Wage Board Act for the print sector and for urgent announcement of fiscal relief measures for newspapers.
The roadmap calls for early enactment of the amended Cinematograph Bill so that the rights of all stakeholders can be protected.
In the television broadcast sector, FICCI wants relaxation in FDI limits in news broadcasting and infrastructure status to the cable sector, apart from smooth and orderly implementation of digitisation.
The body urged the government to ensure that the process of auctions under FM Radio Phase III rolls out smoothly without any further delays. The auctions should be completed by September or October this year and Phase II licenses which expire from April 2015 are extended well before the end-date.
Referring to reduction in channel separation, the government must immediately accept Telecom Regulatory Authority of India’s recommendations so that an FM revolution can be brought about. A larger number of radio stations will also mean more job creation and a much wider programming variety for the people of each city. The chamber has also called for allowing news in an unrestrained manner and increasing FDI in FM radio to 49 per cent.
For the AVGC Sector, it has recommended creation of an investment fund, incubation and market development fund, tax relief, skills and talent development, co-production treaties and focus on kids’ channel in terrestrial broadcasting space.
FICCI expressed its gratitude to the Minister on his announcement regarding the launch of a dedicated channel for kids and animation content on the national broadcaster Doordarshan.
Given the vast and intensive reach of Doordarshan across the country, this initiative will – by popularising kids and animation content – create a demand for original intellectual properties in the sector provide an enormous boost to its growth. Indian kids’ and animation content has long been battling the challenge of outpacing global competitors – and a dedicated forum for distribution such as an exclusive channel from the national public broadcaster will act as a boon for the sector.
FICCI expressed the hope that appropriate steps will be taken soon by Prasar Bharati and Doordarshan to make the vision of a kids and animation channel in the public broadcasting space a reality in the very near future.
It has been asking for creation of a dedicated kids and animation channel from Doordarshan for several years, and has been lobbying this initiative at various levels in the Ministry, as well as with Prasar Bharati and Doordarshan. FICCI had even taken a delegation of industry stakeholders to the Prasar Bharati CEO, a couple of years earlier and made a presentation for a dedicated kids channel by Doordarshan.
The benefits of a ‘DD Kids’ Channel’ would be manifold: not only would it be instrumental in catalysing original IP creation for animation and kids’ content in the country but also serve as a medium for the dissemination of content that is uniquely Indian in its cultural ethos.
While Indian myths and tales continue to be of interest to children in India today, broadcast content for children and animated shows continue to be largely dominated by foreign-made IPs.
Thus, the launch of a kids and animation channel by the national public broadcaster would ensure greater exposure for Indian-made content, which would in turn give a new lease of life to diverse value-based indigenous stories and allow for their packaging in attractive formats that appeal to today’s children.
The initiative will serve as a reinvigoration of our country’s rich cultural heritage and help inculcate quintessentially Indian mores and ethics in the young minds of India – compensating in some measure for the lost art of storytelling in today’s nuclear-family-dominant society.
I&B Ministry
India turns up the heat on piracy, orders Telegram to axe 3,142 channels and blocks 800 websites
New legal teeth, nodal officers and notices to intermediaries signal that the government is done playing nice with copyright thieves
NEW DELHI: India’s war on film piracy just got significantly more aggressive. The government has ordered Telegram to remove 3,142 channels distributing pirated content, blocked access to around 800 websites through internet service providers, and put the full weight of freshly sharpened legislation behind the crackdown. The message from New Delhi is unambiguous: the free ride for copyright thieves is over.
Minister of state for information and broadcasting L. Murugan spelled out the legal architecture to the Lok Sabha on Wednesday. The Cinematograph (Amendment) Act, 2023, he said, now contains specific provisions designed to make piracy a genuinely painful proposition. Sections 6AA and 6AB prohibit unauthorised recording and transmission of films, with violations attracting a minimum of three months’ imprisonment and a fine of Rs 3 lakh. At the upper end, offenders face three years behind bars and fines of up to 5 per cent of a film’s audited gross production cost — a figure that, for a big-budget production, could run into crores.
The legislation also gives the government powers to act against intermediaries hosting infringing content, by notifying them under Section 79(3) of the Information Technology Act, 2000, and compelling takedowns and blocking actions. Under Section 79(3)(b), intermediaries are legally required to remove or disable access to unlawful content upon receiving government notice or court orders. The Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules, 2021, add a further layer of obligation, requiring platforms to ensure their services are not used to host or distribute content that violates copyright or proprietary rights.
To put enforcement into practice, the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting has established a dedicated institutional mechanism, complete with nodal officers to receive complaints. Copyright holders, authorised representatives or individuals can report piracy through a prescribed format, after which the government issues notices to intermediaries to disable access to infringing links.
The most headline-grabbing action came on 11 March 2026, when Telegram was formally notified under Section 79(3)(b) of the IT Act and directed to remove and disable 3,142 channels found to be distributing unauthorised content belonging to OTT platforms, content owners and producers. The complaints that triggered the action came from OTT platforms including JioCinema and Amazon Prime Video, which alleged that copyrighted films, web series and other material were being shared on the platform on a massive scale. Telegram’s architecture, with its large file-sharing limits and capacity for user anonymity, has made it a favoured vehicle for exactly this kind of large-scale piracy.
The Telegram action sits within a broader pattern of escalating enforcement. Just days before the Lok Sabha statement, the ministry banned five OTT platforms for streaming obscene content: MoodXVIP, Koyal Playpro, Digi Movieplex, Feel and Jugnu. In July 2025, the Centre ordered the blocking of 25 OTT platforms accused of streaming obscene, vulgar or pornographic material, a list that included ALTT, ULLU, Big Shots App, Desiflix, Boomex, Navarasa Lite, Gulab App, Kangan App, Bull App, Jalva App, ShowHit, Wow Entertainment, Look Entertainment, Hitprime, Feneo, ShowX, Sol Talkies, Adda TV, HotX VIP, Hulchul App, MoodX, NeonX VIP, Fugi, Mojflix and Triflicks.
Rule 3(1)(b) of the IT (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules, 2021, provides the regulatory hook for those actions, prohibiting platforms from hosting content that is obscene, pornographic, invasive of privacy, gender-harassing, racially or ethnically objectionable, or that promotes hatred and violence.
For an industry that loses billions of rupees annually to piracy, the direction of travel is welcome. The question, as always, is not whether the laws exist, but whether the enforcement machinery can keep pace with the ingenuity of those determined to circumvent it. Three thousand channels down, and the pirates are already busy opening three thousand more.
