I&B Ministry
Apurva Chandra appointed as Secretary, I&B ministry
New Delhi : The Union Cabinet on Thursday appointed Apurva Chandra as secretary, ministry of information and broadcasting (I&B).
Chandra was previously holding the charge of secretary, ministry of labour & employment. The appointment was cleared by the appointment committee of the Cabinet.
Chandra belongs to the 1988 batch of the Indian Administrative Service (IAS) of the Maharashtra cadre. He has spent more than seven years in the ministry of petroleum and natural gas and four years as principal secretary ( industries) in the Maharashtra government. In 2017, he joined as the special director general (acquisition) in the ministry of defence with the mandate of strengthening the Indian Armed Forces by expediting the acquisition process.
Last year in October, he took over the charge of secretary, ministry of labour and employment. He was also elected as the chairperson of the Governing Body of the International Labour Organisation (ILO) for the period October 2020- June 2021, a position of international repute.
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.
