I&B Ministry
Day 7: FM Phase III price touches Rs 827 crore in 56 cities
NEW DELHI: The cumulative provisional winning price has risen to around Rs 827 crore for 83 channels in 56 cities against their aggregate reserve price of about Rs 395 crore at the end of the seventh day of bidding for FM Phase III.
Even as 28 rounds of the e-auction ended with four more rounds today (4 August), the provisional winning prices exceeded the total reserve price of the first batch by about Rs 277.05 crore or 50.35 per cent. There was the total reserve price of Rs 550.18 crore for the first batch of 135 FM channels in 69 existing cities of Phase III.
The Auction Activity Requirement of 80 per cent set at the beginning of the auction continued to remain the same on the seventh day.
There were still no bids in as many as 13 cities on the seventh day and the demand over the price in many cities fell by up to three per cent below the aggregate demand except in Bhubaneswar where it rose to four per cent above the aggregate demand.
The Percentage Price Increment (in INR) applicable for the Next Clock Round was five per cent in Mumbai, Bengaluru, Ahmedabad, Amritsar, Guwahati, Rourkela, Jaipur, Kolhapur, Nagpur, Nasik, Patna, and Rajkot and eight per cent in Bhubaneswar.
As was reported earlier by Indiantelevision.com, the highest Provisional winning price – the same as the Clock round price at the start of the twenty-eighth round – was in Delhi at Rs 123.15 crore, followed by Mumbai at Rs 87.81 crore with both showing marginal increase compared to yesterday.
Among cities recording more than Rs 10 crore, it rose sizeably in Bengaluru to Rs 80.64 crore, Ahmedabad to Rs 42.68 crore, Chennai to Rs 37.72 crore, Patna to Rs 17.04 crore, Jaipur to Rs 12.96 crore and marginally in Chandigarh to Rs 16.24 crore.
Pune at Rs 32.45 crore, Hyderabad at Rs 18 crore, Lucknow at Rs 14 crore and Cochin at Rs 10.21 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.
