I&B Ministry
Day 27: Smaller cities take cumulative winning price to Rs 1155 crore in FM Phase III
NEW DELHI: The cumulative winning price at the end of the 108th round on the 27th day raced up to Rs 1155 crore in the e-auction for the first batch of FM Phase III cities, with smaller cities like Ahmadnagar, Sholapur and Hissar marching forward.
After a week, the number of channels increased by two at 96 channels in 56 cities – and the total bids surpassed the cumulative reserve price by Rs 695.5 crore or 151.2 per cent against the aggregate reserve price of about Rs 459.5 crore.
The cumulative provisional winning price has thus risen over the total reserve price of the first batch of 135 FM channels in 69 existing cities – Rs 550.18 crore – by Rs 604.8 crore or 109.9 per cent.
Varanasi continued to march higher to Rs 16.80 crore, and Jodhpur also showed a jump to Rs 11.44 crore, while Kohlapur was stable with Rs 9.44 crore. Others in the waiting for entry to the Rs 10 crore club appear to be Kanpur, Rajkot, Amritsar and Aurangabad, which have all got above Rs 7 crore each.
E-auction will continue as long as bids are received for any of the 135 channels, including the 13 cities for which no bids have come. An Information and Broadcasting Ministry source said that the bidding process was mechanical without human interference and therefore the computer would decide when it is time to stop.
The Auction Activity Requirement rose to 100 per cent after the 59th round on 14 August, after being 90 per cent after the 37th round on 7 August.
One channel in Guwahati had fetched a price of Rs 4.11 crore against its reserve price of Rs 37 lakh, registering a rise of almost of 980 per cent. A few days earlier, Bhubaneswar had also set a record with a single channel getting the most competitive bidding increment-wise (Rs 7.40 crore) by going up nine times the reserve price.
The 13 cities that continue to elude bidders are: Asansol, Gulbarga, Mangalore, Mysore, Puducherry, Rajahmundry, Siliguri, Tiruchy, Tirunveli, Tirupati, Tuticorin, Vijaywada and Warangal.
The demand in most cities fell by up to three per cent and by four per cent below the excess demand at the price in the 108th round in Hyderabad.
The Percentage Price Increment applicable for the Next Clock Round rose to five each in Ahmednagar and Hissar but was just one in Varanasi, Shillong and Sholapur. There was no change in the other cities.
The winning price has risen by more than 100 per cent above their respective reserve prices in Ahmedabad, Amritsar, Aurangabad, Bengaluru, Bhubaneshwar, Chennai, Delhi, Guwahati, Jaipur, Jodhpur, Kolhapur, Mumbai, Nasik, Patna, Pune, Rourkela and Varanasi, all of which got provisional winning bidders at prices more than double the respective reserve prices.
The provisional winning price in the top three cities reflected no change: Delhi – Rs 169.16 crore (for just one channel); Mumbai – Rs 122.81 crore (for two channels); and Bengaluru – Rs 109.25 crore.
Chennai at Rs 53.38 crore, Ahmedabad at Rs 42.68 crore, Pune at Rs 42.03 crore, Jaipur at Rs 28.34 crore, Chandigarh at Rs 19.04 crore, Hyderabad at Rs 18 crore, Patna at Rs 17.89 crore, Cochin at Rs 15.04 crore, Nasik at Rs 14.66 crore and Lucknow at Rs 14 crore remained static.
I&B Ministry
Press Sewa Portal digitises 1.5 lakh records, streamlines periodical registrations: MIB
Online system spans 780 districts; Rs 5.6 crore penalties, 88,315 titles cancelled
NEW DELHI: India’s print media registry has quietly moved from dusty files to digital dashboards. The government has digitised more than 1.5 lakh historical records of newspapers and periodicals and shifted registrations fully online through the Press Sewa Portal.
Introduced under the Press and Registration of Periodicals (PRP) Act, 2023, the portal now handles all applications for registering periodicals, replacing the earlier paper-heavy system created under the Press and Registration of Books Act, 1867, which has since been repealed.
The digital shift brings a wide range of services onto a single platform. Publishers can now register new periodicals, revise registrations, transfer ownership, file annual statements, pay penalties online and apply for circulation verification without navigating government offices.
As part of the rollout, specified authorities in 780 districts across India have been onboarded onto the platform. Since 1 March 2024, the portal has processed 11,081 applications and issued certificates across different categories.
The transition has also brought stronger compliance. According to government data, Rs 5.63 crore in penalties has been collected through the portal so far. States such as Maharashtra, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh account for some of the largest penalty collections.
At the same time, the authorities have carried out a major clean-up of inactive or non-compliant publications. A total of 88,315 periodicals have been cancelled nationwide, with Maharashtra, Uttar Pradesh and Delhi among the states reporting the highest number of cancellations.
The government says the system will continue to evolve based on feedback from users. The Press Registrar General of India (PRGI) regularly reviews suggestions to improve services and make compliance easier for publishers.
The full list of registered newspapers and periodicals is available on the PRGI website under the Registered Titles section.
The information was shared in a written reply in the Lok Sabha by minister of state for information and broadcasting and parliamentary affairs L Murugan, responding to a question from Damodar Agrawal.
