I&B Ministry
Budget 2022: I&B ministry allocation slashed to Rs 3980.77 crore in FY23
Mumbai: The Union Budget 2022 has earmarked a total sum of Rs 3980.77 crore for the ministry of information and broadcasting in the fiscal year 2022-23. This amounts to a decrease of Rs 90 crore from last year.
With the exception of the Press Council of India that saw an increase of Rs 7 crore, up from Rs 20 crore in FY22 to Rs 27 crore for FY 23, the budgets for all other autonomous bodies under the MIB were slashed.
Allocation for Prasar Bharati’s declined to Rs 2,555.29 crore from Rs 2,640.11 crore in the last financial year. The same was the case with The Films and Television Institute of India (from Rs 58.48 crore last year to Rs 55.39 crore this year), the Indian Institute of Mass Communication (from Rs 65 crore to Rs 52 crore), Children’s Film Society of India and the Satyajit Ray Film and Television Institute.
Allocation for broadcasting under the social services head has also gone down from Rs 2,921.11 crore to Rs 2,839.29 crore. There was also a reduction in the budget for ‘information and publicity’ from Rs 971.26 crore to Rs 942.04 crore.
‘Information and publicity’ covers establishment expenditure of media units in the country such as the Bureau of Outreach and Communication, Press Information Bureau, Publications Division, New Media Wing, Registrar of Newspapers for India (RNI), Films Division, National Film Archive of India, Electronic Media Monitoring Centre and others.
Hailing the budget as “beneficial”, information and broadcasting minister Anurag Thakur said that it is a blueprint to fulfil the hopes and aspirations of a new India in the 100th year of its independence.
The annual budget for 2022-23 was presented by finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman in Parliament on Tuesday.
I&B Ministry
Government sets up AI governance group to steer policy
AIGEG to align ministries, assess jobs impact, guide AI deployment.
MUMBAI: If artificial intelligence is the engine, the government is now building the dashboard and making sure everyone reads from the same screen. The Centre has constituted a new inter-ministerial body to coordinate India’s approach to AI, formalising a key recommendation from its governance framework and the Economic Survey. The AI Governance and Economic Group (AIGEG), set up by the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology, will act as the central platform to align AI-related policy across ministries, regulators and departments, an attempt to bring coherence to what has so far been a fragmented and fast-evolving landscape.
The group will be chaired by union minister Ashwini Vaishnaw, with minister of state Jitin Prasada as vice chairperson. Its composition reflects both technological and economic priorities, bringing together the principal scientific adviser, the chief economic adviser, and the CEO of NITI Aayog, alongside key secretaries from telecommunications, economic affairs and science and technology. A representative from the National Security Council Secretariat is also part of the group, while the MeitY secretary will serve as member convenor.
At its core, AIGEG is designed to do two things: coordinate and anticipate. On the policy front, it will review existing regulatory mechanisms, issue guidance across sectors and ensure companies remain compliant with evolving legal frameworks. Beyond that, it will oversee national initiatives on AI governance, with a focus on enabling responsible innovation rather than merely regulating it.
The economic dimension is equally central. The group has been tasked with assessing how AI-driven automation could reshape jobs identifying which roles are most at risk, where those impacts may be geographically concentrated, and whether technology will augment or replace human labour. Based on these assessments, it will develop mitigation strategies and transition plans, signalling a more proactive stance on workforce disruption.
In parallel, AIGEG will work with industry stakeholders to chart a long-term roadmap for AI adoption, categorising use cases into “deploy”, “pilot” or “defer” buckets depending on readiness factors such as data availability, skill levels and regulatory clarity. The aim is to move from broad ambition to structured execution deciding not just what can be built, but what should be built now.
The group will function as the apex layer in India’s AI governance architecture, supported by a Technology and Policy Expert Committee that will track global developments, emerging risks and regulatory priorities. Together, the two bodies are expected to shape both the pace and direction of AI adoption in the country.
In a landscape where technology often outruns policy, the creation of AIGEG signals an attempt to close that gap ensuring that India’s AI journey is not just rapid, but also coordinated, accountable and economically grounded.
