I&B Ministry
I&B’s 2025 report card: Lights, camera, action — and Rs 4,334 crore
NEW DELHI: If 2025 was India’s year to make waves, the ministry of information and broadcasting (I&B) was its chief surfboard maker. Prime minister Narendra Modi’s call to “create in India, create for the world” wasn’t just ministerial hot air—it triggered a tsunami of creative dealmaking that swept from Melbourne to Madrid, generating Rs 4,334 crores in potential business discussions and putting Indian creators on every continent’s radar.
The centrepiece was Waves 2025, the World Audio Visual and Entertainment Summit, which drew over 90 countries, 10,000 delegates, and roughly 1 lakh punters through its doors. Modi himself dropped by to glad-hand young creators, describing the event as a “wave of culture, creativity and universal connectivity”—and for once, the hyperbole wasn’t entirely unwarranted.
The summit’s CreatoSphere platform, which sounds like something from a sci-fi novel but is actually a hub for film, VFX, animation, gaming, and digital media, launched the Create in India Challenges. Season one attracted over 1 lakh entries from more than 60 countries across 33 categories. Winners weren’t just handed certificates and sent packing—they performed at Melbourne, exhibited at Tokyo Game Show, and pitched at Toronto International Film Festival. I&B minister Ashwini Vaishnav handed out gongs to 150 creators, cementing the government’s commitment to nurturing what it calls the “creative economy.”
WaveX, the startup arm, proved equally industrious. It coaxed over 200 startups into its embrace, enabled 30 to pitch to Microsoft, Amazon, and Lumikai, and somehow got two of its charges—VYGR News and VIVA Technologies—onto Shark Tank India, where they presumably dodged the usual mauling. The initiative’s KalaaSetu and BhashaSetu challenges, focused on AI-driven video generation and real-time translation respectively, attracted over 100 startups and picked ten for collaboration with government media units.
Waves Bazaar, the “craft-to-commerce” global e-marketplace, went on a roadshow between August and December, hitting 12 international events across four continents and four domestic jamborees. The numbers are eye-watering: over 9,000 B2B meetings, 10 memoranda of understanding signed, three more proposed, and the launch of creative corridors with Japan, Korea, and Australia. The ministry claims Rs 4,334 crores in potential deals—potential being the operative word, though in India’s booming content market, optimism often precedes reality by only a few quarters.
On the bricks-and-mortar front, the Indian Institute of Creative Technology opened its temporary Mumbai campus in July with Rs 391.15 crores in budgetary support. The public-private partnership with Ficci and CII has enrolled over 100 students across 18 courses, incubated eight startups, and signed memoranda with Google, Meta, Nvidia, Microsoft, Apple, Adobe, and WPP—a who’s who of tech giants keen to tap India’s creative reserves. A permanent 10 acre campus at Film City, Goregaon, complete with an immersive AR/VR/XR studio, is in the works.
Elsewhere, the ministry set up a Live Events Development Cell to position India’s concert economy as a growth driver. A single-window clearance system is being built on the India Cine Hub platform to expedite permissions for fire, traffic, and municipal approvals—addressing the red-tape nightmares that have long plagued event organisers. Meanwhile, an inter-ministerial committee is tackling digital piracy, that perennial thorn in the creative economy’s side.
State broadcaster Doordarshan snagged the Election Commission’s media award for voter awareness during the 2024 Lok Sabha elections, presented by the president on National Voters’ Day. Community radio added 22 new stations, bringing the total to 551, with workshops and a national sammelan held during Waves to strengthen local broadcasting.
The 56th International Film Festival of India in Goa screened over 240 films from 81 countries, threw in the country’s first AI Film Festival, and staged a grand parade through Panaji that turned the event into a street-level celebration. The accompanying Waves Film Bazaar drew over 2,500 delegates from 40-plus countries and showcased 320 projects—making it one of South Asia’s largest film markets.
The Central Board of Film Certification modernised too, launching a multilingual certification module that allows multiple language versions under a single application, and mandating 50 per cent women’s participation on examining and revising committees. Digital signatures replaced wet ink, and certificates became downloadable—small victories in the fight against bureaucratic inertia.
India’s I&B ministry ended 2025 having turned content creation into something resembling an industrial policy. Whether Rs 4,334 crores in “potential” business materialises remains to be seen, but the ministry has built the infrastructure, corralled the startups, and put Indian creators on international stages. As Modi might say, the wave has been ridden. Now comes the hard part: keeping the momentum going when the cameras stop rolling.
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.
