I&B Ministry
For broadcast industry, question is who will head I&B ministry
MUMBAI: With the elections driving a stake through the NDA’s heart and taking the Congress off the life support system it had been on for several years now, attention will now be on who will be the next PM and of course who will hold the crucial portfolios of finance, industry, information and broadcasting, communications, energy and petroleum.
For the broadcasting, cable TV, advertising, print media and telecom sectors what will weigh heavily are the I&B and communications portfolios.One player that has a large stake in the convergence game has already started lobbying for the the communications ministry to take centre stage and positioning it as the more crucial of the two ministries. The player has for long been talking about a convergent India and has actually been suggesting that the two ministries be merged.
However, indiantelevision.com believes that the two ministries should be maintained as separate entities. Among the names being mentioned for the I&B ministership is former incumbent Jaipal Reddy (whose Broadcasting Bill is still gathering dust).
Another possibility is Congress spokesperson Ghulam Nabi Azad who is another person with experience in the I&B ministry (he held the portfolio in eighties). Or the mantle might well fall on the firebrand Renuka Chowdhary.
If the Congress decides to opt for a face from the entertainment industry, there are a number of names that could figure. There is faded Hero Number 1 and “Virar ka Chokra” Govinda or former screen siren Jayaprada. There is of course the many time-MP and actor Sunil Dutt, which is a name that one broadcast industry head honcho suggested as a possible choice.
Of course all this must remain in the realm of speculation for the present.
But whoever does take up the I&B minister’s post, he /she will have a lot of unfinished business to deal with, the most vexing being the stalled rollout of conditional access in the country. Will it be scrapped (after all the Congress had opposed it) is a question that is of concern to the cable fraternity in particular.
With the Left having a major say in the new political dispensation, the fear among many in the industry is that the reforms process while not being jettisoned, will likely slow down.
What that might well mean is that demands for relaxation is foreign shareholding norms for news entities from the current 26 per cent foreign direct investment (FDI) would not be entertained at least for the near term.
More direct issues will be those like content regulation and framing norms for downlinking that have been priority issues for the government in the recent past.
All this of course will follow after the I&B ministry has a head in place. The answer to that might take a few more days though.
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.
