News Broadcasting
DD, AIR call off strike for time being
NEW DELHI: The programming staff association of Doordarshan and All India Radio have deferred a decision to go on strike from today. The decision comes after an assurance of redress of their grievances from Prasar Bharati chief executive K S Sarma and Information and Broadcasting secretary Pawan Chopra, after a series of meetings held last week.
However, indiantelevision.com learns that it has been conveyed to the authorities concerned, that the various contentious issues should be resolved as soon as possible and a broad decision should be arrived at, preferably, within a week’s time.
Pointing out that he appreciates the association’s decision to defer the proposed strike, which would have certainly affected DD and AIR’s functioning partly, chief executive of Prasar Bharati, K S Sarma, said, ” Meetings were held both at Prasar Bharati and the information and broadcasting ministry last week and we are seized of the matter. Ways to redress grievances of the programming staff are being worked out.”
Till the time of writing this report, the association representatives could not be contacted for comments on latest developments.
The programming staff association,one of the three associations in Prasar Bharati, while threatening to start a stir, had said in a statement last week, “The association is trying to attract attention of the authorities towards the acute shortage of programme staff which is hampering the efforts to meet competition from other channels and increase the revenue of the organisation to make it self reliant.”
Indiantelevision.com also learns from government sources that I&B secretary Chopra met up with the association representatives on Saturday and conveyed to them that a package involving promotion and training of programming staff has been almost finalised by the ministry for implementation soon.
“In the wake of all this, the association was requested to reconsider its decision to go on strike from this week,” a government source said, adding that the association in-principle agreed to defer the proposed stir for some time.
However, there seems to be some rift amongst the three associations in Prasar Bharati that still functions like a government organisation with unions often holding authorities to ransom in a bid to make them agree to their demands.
The other two associations – the programming welfare association and the one which has Indian Information Service employees as its members, are not part of the proposed stir. Government sources also indicated that the present stir threat is nothing but “arm-twisting tactics,” especially when a ‘babu’ culture of mediocrity still rules Prasar Bharati.
DD and AIR has about 13,000 programming staff on its rolls as part of a 40,000-odd employee base of Prasar Bharati Corporation that has been modeled on another public service broadcaster, British Broadcasting Corporation.
News Broadcasting
India Today Group debuts AI anchor ‘Sutra’ at AI Impact Summit 2026
Sutra aims to simplify live policy debates using sovereign AI models
NEW DELHI: India Today Group has unveiled Sutra, an AI-driven news anchor designed to deliver real-time, contextual reporting, marking the group’s latest push to integrate artificial intelligence into mainstream journalism.
The AI anchor was introduced at the India AI Impact Summit 2026 in New Delhi and developed in collaboration with BharatGen, with the initiative showcased by the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology.
India Today Group said Sutra is built to navigate complex policy discussions and fast-moving developments by synthesising information into concise, accessible insights, aimed at narrowing the gap between high-level debates and public understanding. The AI anchor was used to surface live takeaways from key sessions at the summit.
India Today Group chief AI officer Nilanjan Das, said the project was focused on clarity and accessibility without diluting editorial rigour. He added that working with BharatGen aligned the group’s AI ambitions with India’s broader push towards sovereign technology capabilities.
BharatGen CEO Rishi Bal, said the partnership reflected a shift from basic automation towards deeper contextual intelligence in media. He emphasised the importance of indigenous, multimodal AI models capable of understanding Indian languages, regional dialects and cultural nuance, particularly as AI-driven news formats gain traction.
The launch positions India Today Group among the first major Indian media houses to deploy an AI anchor backed by home-grown technology, underscoring a growing convergence between journalism, public policy and sovereign AI infrastructure.
