News Broadcasting
Digital India will bridge gaps between haves & have-nots: Ravi Shankar Prasad
NEW DELHI: Digital India is a tool to bridge the divide between the haves and have-nots, according to Communications and Information Technology Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad.
In his address at the Times Networks Digital India meet, Prasad said that a floodgate of opportunities are going to open in India. “I welcome concrete suggestions from all for making Digital India a grand success – we have to work together. Wherever it is possible digging will be done, cables will be laid, if we can supplement by satellite or balloon or drones, we will consider that,” he said.
Prasad added that a ‘skilled India’ is one of the three priority areas for the government that would complement the ongoing ambitious Digital India and Make in India programmes. “The three pillars of digital India that our government will focus on is digital infrastructure, digital service delivery and digital empowerment,” Prasad said.
According to him, Digital India is an enabling platform for change and will not be fulfilled without the Make in India initiative.
Times Television Network, part of the Times of India Group, hosted the ‘Digital India Summit 2015’ on the theme – ‘Digital India: Bits & Bytes of a Billion Dreams’. The summit brought key policy makers, digital leaders and influential thinkers face-to-face to deliberate suggestions to prepare India to face technological challenges and devise solutions to contribute towards realizing the implementation objectives of Digital India.
The two-day conclave saw discussions on vital subjects including Broadband Highways, Universal Access to Mobile Connectivity, Public Internet Access Programme; E-governance: Reforming the Government through Technology; Net Neutrality; Digital Wallet, E-Kranti: Electronic Delivery of Services; Information for all; Electronic manufacturing; IT for jobs and Early Harvest Programme.
News Broadcasting
News TV viewership jumps 33 per cent as West Asia war draws audiences
BARC Week 8 data shows news share rising to 8 per cent despite T20 World Cup
NEW DELHI: Even as individual television news channel ratings remain under a temporary pause, the genre itself is seeing a clear surge in audience attention.
According to the latest data from Broadcast Audience Research Council India, television news recorded a 33 per cent jump in genre share in Week 8 of 2026, covering February 28 to March 6.
The news genre accounted for 8 per cent of total television viewership during the week, up from 6 per cent the previous week. The spike in attention coincided with escalating geopolitical tensions involving the United States, Israel and Iran, which have kept global headlines firmly fixed on West Asia.
The rise is notable because it came at a time when cricket was dominating television screens. The high-stakes stages of the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup, including the Super 8 fixtures and semi-finals, were being broadcast during the same period.
Despite the cricket frenzy, viewers appeared to be toggling between sport and global affairs, boosting the overall share of news programming.
The surge in genre share comes even as the government has enforced a one-month pause on publishing ratings for individual news channels. The move followed regulatory scrutiny of the television ratings ecosystem.
While channel-level rankings remain temporarily out of sight, the genre-level data suggests that when global tensions escalate, audiences continue to turn to television news for real-time updates.
