I&B tells FIPB needs more time to examine Star News uplink application

NEW DELHI: The Indian government now has advised the Foreign Investment Promotion Board (FIPB) to hang on to a proposal from Star News broadcasting to pick up 26 per cent equity stake in Media Content &Communications Services India Pvt. Ltd. (MCCS).
Simultaneously Star News has applied today again for a weekly extension of the uplink permission, the fifth in the series.
“We have conveyed to the FIPB that we need some time to further examine the case of Star News, though it falls within the purview of the existing law,” a senior information and broadcasting ministry official said today.
FIPB, which is responsible for taking up cases of foreign investment, generally refers cases to the nodal ministries for comments. In the case of media, the nodal ministry is the I&B ministry.
The government official explained that the reason for such advice to the FIPB is that the I&B ministry is examining the antecedents of various companies floated by Star as also the shareholders of MCCS.
“We need to study the companies that have been mentioned by Star News in its reply to our earlier queries as also the source of funding for these companies. Now all this would take some time,” the official explained.