I&B Ministry
Kerala sweeps tourism publicity awards, American tourist bags writers’s award
NEW DELHI: Kerala swept the publicity awards in the National Tourism Awards for the year 2014-15 with as many as three awards apart frpm an award to a foreign tourist for writing about the state.
The Tourism Departments of Kerala and Gujarat jointly shared the Tourism award Most Innovative use of Information Technology – Social Media / Mobile App.
Ms Stephanie Pearson of the United States received the award for feature on Kerala, “The Green Heaven”.
The Tourism Department of Kerala received two other awards: for the coffee table volume on“Kerala & The Spice Routes”, and their Brochure “The Great Backwaters (Das Faszinierendste Gewässer der Erde)” in German Language in the category of Excellence in Publishing in Foreign Language other than English.
The Best Tourism Film award went to Department of Tourism of Daman & Diu for the film “Ilha De Calma”.
The Department of Tourism of Telangana for their coffee Table Book “Ancient Temples of Telangana” in the category of Best Tourism Promotion Publicity Material by States and Union Territories.
The awards were given away over the weekend by Lok Sabha Speaker Sumitra Mahajan who said tourists are the Brand Ambassadors of their respective countries and Tourism is a mode of improving the image of their countries abroad.
All the persons involved in Tourism industry are the Flag Bearers of the country. The continuous strive for service excellence is all the more important as India’s Tourism Sector is on an upward growth track.
Tourism Minister Mahesh Sharma and Secretary Vinod Zutshi also spoke on the occasion.
In all, 74 Awards were presented in various segments of the travel, tourism and hospitality industry. Tourism Ministers of many States, Central and State Government Officials, Members from the Travel and Hospitality Industries, including leading Hoteliers, Travel Agents and Tour Operators and Travel Media attended the function.
I&B Ministry
Prasar Bharati sets EPG standards for DD Free Dish platform
New specs define 7-day guide, LCN mapping, and device compatibility.
MUMBAI: Your TV guide just got a backstage pass structured, scheduled, and far more in sync. Prasar Bharati has released detailed technical specifications for Electronic Programme Guide (EPG) services on DD Free Dish, laying down a standardised framework for how channels and programme information are organised and delivered. At the core of the update is a defined EPG data structure, covering genre-based categorisation, scheduling formats, and Logical Channel Numbering (LCN). The aim is simple: make navigation less guesswork and more guided experience across the platform’s over 40 million households.
The specifications also introduce a seven-day programme guide window for each channel, alongside clear rules for channel grouping and LCN mapping effectively deciding not just what you watch, but how easily you find it.
On the technical front, the document outlines requirements for Program Specific Information (PSI) and Service Information (SI), including descriptor usage across tables such as PAT, BAT and NIT. It further details service lists and network linkage parameters, giving OEMs and developers a clearer blueprint for integration.
Importantly, the framework is designed to work seamlessly with television sets equipped with in-built satellite tuners, enabling users to access DD Free Dish directly without additional hardware, an incremental but meaningful step towards simplifying access.
The platform will continue to operate on GSAT-15 transponders, using MPEG-4 compression and DVB-S2 transmission standards, ensuring continuity even as the interface evolves.
While largely technical, the move signals a broader push towards standardisation and user-friendly discovery in India’s free-to-air ecosystem because sometimes, the real upgrade isn’t what’s on screen, but how easily you get there.
