I&B Ministry
FM Phase III permission holders to pay Rs 9000 per month to BECIL for monitoring
NEW DELHI: The Government said that permission holders of the first batch of FM Radio Phase III will have to pay Rs 9000 per channel, per city, per month as monitoring charges continuously to the Broadcast Engineers Consultants (India) Ltd (BECIL).
This will be subject to an escalation charge of five per cent per annum on monitoring charges.
The Information and Broadcasting (I&B) Ministry also put on its website the format of the Project Management Agreement between the permission holder and BECIL.
Under the agreement, BECIL will make all reasonable endeavours to complete each of the activities in respect of the building, installation, commissioning and completion of the common transmission infrastructure (CTI) to the satisfaction of the first party for delivery to the permission holder in accordance with the timeline set out, provided always that the legal and beneficial ownership and all right, title and interest to all and any parts of the licence holder’s share in the Common Transmission Infrastructure (at whatever stage of completion) and the Equipment shall at all times remain with the licence holder and BECIL will not have any right at law or in equity and at anytime to make any claim of title or create any lien, charge or other encumbrance whatsoever over all or any parts of the CTI or the equipment.
The obligations of BECIL have been set out in a clause and will automatically conclude upon the commissioning of the CTI. For the avoidance of doubt, the performance of equipment installed at the site shall be the exclusive responsibility of the licence holder.
In terms of the Phase III FM Radio Policy, successful bidders have to co-locate transmission facilities on existing All India Radio/Doordarshan (Prasar Bharati) towers or towers to be constructed by BECIL as the case may be and common facilities have to be integrated by BECIL.
The licence holders have to enter into an agreement with Prasar Bharati whereby Prasar Bharati has agreed to make available land and tower aperture for the cities from where the permission holders are operating to build, install and operate the common facilities and other equipment of the FM radio broadcast facility.
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.
