I&B Ministry
Government committed to communicating with people across media platforms: Javadekar
NEW DELHI: Information and Broadcasting Minister Prakash Javadekar today promised a stable policy regime with transparency and time-bound mechanism and said efforts would be streamlined so as to make the process of clearances speedy and transparent.
He said while addressing the “CEOs Roundtable on Media & Entertainment” by Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) that the government has always promoted the Media & Entertainment fraternity as partners in growth and would remain a facilitator to encourage the growth of the industry and provide a roadmap in the interests of the people.
Javadekar said the potential of the Indian M&E industry is untapped and endorsed the CII vision of taking the Indian M&E industry to $100 billion by the end of this decade. He said the government will be “partner in progress” with the growth of the M&E industry.
Reacting to suggestions from stakeholders, Javadekar said the policies of this government would be people-centric and would aim at meeting the aspirations of the common citizens. He added that providing information, entertainment and knowledge to the citizens would be the priority of the Ministry. Innovative approaches would be encouraged so as to ensure quality information.
“This government is about communication and consensus. We will create a process in which decisions will be taken in four weeks which was taking four months earlier,” he said with reference to decisions pertaining to the broadcast sector.
The Minister was categorical that the ongoing digitisation will not be abandoned, Radio phase III licensing will be processed faster, news allowed in FM radio, current DAVP rates will be relooked and self regulation advocated for print medium.
The Minister also emphasised on the need for expanding the reach of Community Radio and aimed at opening up of 1000 Community Radio Stations in near future.
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Referring to the vision of Prime Minister Narendra Modi of ‘Speed, Skill and Scale’, the Minister urged the media industry to strive to attain new heights.
Praising new-age technologies, he described how the social media platforms had changed the dimensions of news reporting.
While recognising the importance of the Freedom of Speech and Expression he emphasised on the need for responsible journalism. Javadekar assured the stakeholders that their suggestions on various policy issues would be looked into in a time-bound manner.
Earlier, I&B secretary Bimal Julka assured the media that the Ministry would work as a facilitator for the industry and would work towards single-window clearances ‘with no multiple grills’ for better transparency and accountability. He said the phase III FM Radio auctions will be completed by December 2014. Julka also made a request to the M&E industry to present budget proposals to his Ministry by 23 June to be presented to the Finance Ministry.
40 top CEOs of the M&E sector interacted with the Minister and were confident that pending decisions will not be further delayed by the new government. Issues related to broadcast, films, DTH, cable, radio, print, news broadcast were briefed by industry leaders at the CII roundtable.
“We believe that the soft power of Indian M&E sector can bring innumerable benefits to the Indian economy. The M&E industry provides direct employment to around 10 million people and has the potential to double the number. This sector also is on the cusp of achieving the same global success that the Indian IT industry has achieved,” said CII president Ajay Shriram.
CII Media and Entertainment Committee and group CEO, Viacom 18 Media, Sudhanshu Vats said accountability, clarity and foresight from M&E stakeholders will take the sector to new heights.
In his opening address CII DG Chandrajit Banerjee said that an innovative push from the government in an enabling regulatory infrastructure and policy reforms will create a world class knowledge driven entertainment in India.
I&B Ministry
India turns up the heat on piracy, orders Telegram to axe 3,142 channels and blocks 800 websites
New legal teeth, nodal officers and notices to intermediaries signal that the government is done playing nice with copyright thieves
NEW DELHI: India’s war on film piracy just got significantly more aggressive. The government has ordered Telegram to remove 3,142 channels distributing pirated content, blocked access to around 800 websites through internet service providers, and put the full weight of freshly sharpened legislation behind the crackdown. The message from New Delhi is unambiguous: the free ride for copyright thieves is over.
Minister of state for information and broadcasting L. Murugan spelled out the legal architecture to the Lok Sabha on Wednesday. The Cinematograph (Amendment) Act, 2023, he said, now contains specific provisions designed to make piracy a genuinely painful proposition. Sections 6AA and 6AB prohibit unauthorised recording and transmission of films, with violations attracting a minimum of three months’ imprisonment and a fine of Rs 3 lakh. At the upper end, offenders face three years behind bars and fines of up to 5 per cent of a film’s audited gross production cost — a figure that, for a big-budget production, could run into crores.
The legislation also gives the government powers to act against intermediaries hosting infringing content, by notifying them under Section 79(3) of the Information Technology Act, 2000, and compelling takedowns and blocking actions. Under Section 79(3)(b), intermediaries are legally required to remove or disable access to unlawful content upon receiving government notice or court orders. The Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules, 2021, add a further layer of obligation, requiring platforms to ensure their services are not used to host or distribute content that violates copyright or proprietary rights.
To put enforcement into practice, the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting has established a dedicated institutional mechanism, complete with nodal officers to receive complaints. Copyright holders, authorised representatives or individuals can report piracy through a prescribed format, after which the government issues notices to intermediaries to disable access to infringing links.
The most headline-grabbing action came on 11 March 2026, when Telegram was formally notified under Section 79(3)(b) of the IT Act and directed to remove and disable 3,142 channels found to be distributing unauthorised content belonging to OTT platforms, content owners and producers. The complaints that triggered the action came from OTT platforms including JioCinema and Amazon Prime Video, which alleged that copyrighted films, web series and other material were being shared on the platform on a massive scale. Telegram’s architecture, with its large file-sharing limits and capacity for user anonymity, has made it a favoured vehicle for exactly this kind of large-scale piracy.
The Telegram action sits within a broader pattern of escalating enforcement. Just days before the Lok Sabha statement, the ministry banned five OTT platforms for streaming obscene content: MoodXVIP, Koyal Playpro, Digi Movieplex, Feel and Jugnu. In July 2025, the Centre ordered the blocking of 25 OTT platforms accused of streaming obscene, vulgar or pornographic material, a list that included ALTT, ULLU, Big Shots App, Desiflix, Boomex, Navarasa Lite, Gulab App, Kangan App, Bull App, Jalva App, ShowHit, Wow Entertainment, Look Entertainment, Hitprime, Feneo, ShowX, Sol Talkies, Adda TV, HotX VIP, Hulchul App, MoodX, NeonX VIP, Fugi, Mojflix and Triflicks.
Rule 3(1)(b) of the IT (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules, 2021, provides the regulatory hook for those actions, prohibiting platforms from hosting content that is obscene, pornographic, invasive of privacy, gender-harassing, racially or ethnically objectionable, or that promotes hatred and violence.
For an industry that loses billions of rupees annually to piracy, the direction of travel is welcome. The question, as always, is not whether the laws exist, but whether the enforcement machinery can keep pace with the ingenuity of those determined to circumvent it. Three thousand channels down, and the pirates are already busy opening three thousand more.
