I&B Ministry
Govt panel discusses autonomous Prasar’s ‘outreach’ funding from external affairs ministry
NEW DELHI: With the central government laying emphasis on its external relations, particularly with neighbouring countries, the Standing Advisory Committee of All-India Radio has decided to work in tandem with the external affairs ministry with regard to reaching out to other countries through its broadcast services.
The Committee, which met recently after 34 years (the last meeting was in 1983) and for the first time after Prasar Bharati came into being in 1997, took various decisions which will enable greater interaction between the external affairs ministry and the pubcaster.
AIR external services director Amlanjyoti Mazumdar told Indiantelevision.com that the meeting, held at the initiative of AIR, was chaired by the ministry of information and broadcasting additional secretary Jayashree Mukherjee though the committee is headed by the MIB secretary.
The committee was “revived and reconstituted” as part of the revamping process of the External Services Division (ESD) of the public broadcaster.
The committee represents various stakeholders of public diplomacy like ministries of external affairs and home affairs as well as the Indian Council for Cultural Relations (ICCR).
Mazumdar said that under Section 12(4) of the Prasar Bharati Act 1990, the ESD has to be funded by the external affairs ministry. However, ESD has, so far, been funded through internal resources of the pubcaster. This matter was also taken up at the meeting, where it was clearly stated that channels like Voice of America or Germany’s Deutsche Welle or the external services of Canada were funded by the foreign affairs departments of those countries.
Mazumdar said the issue was never raised when the government was funding All-India Radio and Doordarshan, but had become important after Prasar Bharati came into being as an autonomous organisation.
One of the issues discussed in the meeting was how to counter the increasing penetration of foreign radio broadcast in the country, particularly in the north eastern states, sources said.
It was pointed out that, at a time when the government is keen to reach out to the neighbouring countries, AIR did not have a service for Bhutan.
A strategy for broadcasting outside India like in Myanmar and Tibetan Autonomous Region was also discussed during the meeting, they said.
The role of Indian missions abroad to enrich the programme with country-specific inputs was also discussed in the meeting, the sources added.
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.
