I&B Ministry
‘No rollback of FDI norms for print’: Reddy
NEW DELHI: The government, today, stated there would be no rollback of foreign investment norms for the print medium, though a group of ministers (GoM) has been set up to study various aspects of this sensitive sector.
There is no intention to roll back the previous government’s decision allowing 26 per cent foreign investment (in the print medium), information and broadcasting minister Jaipal Reddy told the Economic Editors conference, here today.
The reason for continuity: not to destabilise the investment framework. “We feel that the previous government had put in enough safeguards, which are being studied by a GoM along with a host of other related issues,” the minister added.
The present Congres-led government had been opposed to opening up the print medium to foreign investments, which was an issue that was first debated and then acted upon by the previous Bharatiya Janata Party-led coalition government. “We have learned to live with it (FDI),” Reddy said when pointed out that he and his party vehemently opposed the issue.
However, Reddy said that no final view has been taken on allowing foreign institutional investors (FIIs) in news channel ventures. Various news channels in the country had been demanding that FII investments should be allowed in their respective parent companies, a la print medium.
“The (FII) issue is still being studied as we want to bring in a downlinking policy (first),” Reddy said without giving a time frame for enacting legislation in this regard. Ministerial sources, meanwhile indicated that the downlinking policy may take few weeks before a note could be readied for cabinet”s consideration.
On his pet topic of autonomy of Prasar Bharati, Reddy reiterated that some additional funding need to be generated if the pubcaster were to be really autonomous.
“Should the autonomy of Prasar Bharati (manager of Doordarshan and All India Radio) depend on the fancies of migratory ministers?” Reddy asked, hammering in a point that public had to chip in if public service broadcasting were to be kept alive in the country.
In the past, Reddy has suggested levying a one-time cess on every new radio and TV set sold in the country or levying an additional excise duty on radio and TV sets. “I am not proposing anything, but such a thing could help Prasar Bharati generate more money and reduce government funding,” he added.
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.
