I&B Ministry
MIB stresses on digital, connectivity revolution; Google Play govt schemes
NEW DELHI: Information and Broadcasting Minister M Venkaiah Naidu has said the endeavour of the Government is to improve delivery systems, need to promote digital transformation and take forward the connectivity revolution in all sectors.
Speaking after the release of the Government of India Calendar 2017, he lauded the growth of the Indian print media and said it continued its growth story at a steady rate of 5.13% over the previous year. Earlier, Naidu launched the Government of India Digital Calendar 2017 App. He added that the calendar App could be downloaded from Google Play store free of cost.
A total of 5,423 new publications had been registered during the year 2015-16 with the total number of Registered Publications as on 31 March 2016 standing at 1, 10,851.
Giving the Circulation-wise details, Naidu said that Hindi publications continued to lead with 31,44,55,106 copies per publishing day followed by English with 6,54,13,443 copies and Urdu with 5,17,75,006 copies per publishing day.
He said the phenomenal growth of the print media sector had mandated changes in the print media policy/guidelines in the past years. The need to update policies keeping in mind the changing dynamics in the print media sector, has resulted in evolving a robust mechanism for RNI to maintain an updated list of Publications in the Country. This mechanism also facilitated weeding out illegal publications that may prove to be an irritant to law-enforcement agencies.
Referring to the New Print Advertisement Policy framework, the Minister said that it provided for circulation verification Procedure for empanelment of Newspapers and Journals with DAVP. The procedure involved certification by RNI if circulation exceeds 45,000 copies per publishing day.
He said the vision of the Government was to position the nation on a sustainable growth trajectory. The Government is committed to bring about transformational changes in the country with the mantra of ‘Reform, Perform & Transform’.
The vision has been depicted in the Government of India Calendar 2017 with the theme “Mera Desh Badal Raha Hai, Aage Badh Raha Hai”.
He also released the Press in India Report 2015-16 prepared by the Registrar of Newspapers of India. Minister of state for information & broadcasting Rajyavardhan Rathore was also present on the occasion.
Naidu announced that the Government would be launching a 100 days campaign across the country on the theme of Good Governance from 25 December which marks the birthday of the former prime minister A B Vajpayee and is celebrated as Good Governance Day. Ministers, Members of the Parliament would be travelling across the country to highlight key initiatives of the Government that has been taken in the last two and a half years.
The Government Calendar meanwhile showcases various flagship schemes and initiatives of the Government identifying a different theme every month:
· Jan: Skilling India for Youth Led Development
· Feb: Empowering the Poor
· Mar: Sashakt Nari, Sashakt Bharat
· April: Futuristic India through Infrastructure Building
· May: MSME: India’s Economic Backbone
· June: Farmers: Bread Winners of our Nation
· July: Rural Electrification: Lightning Every Home
· Aug: Armed Forces: Pride of the Nation
· Sept: Cashless Transactions
· Oct: Swachh Bharat: New Vigour to Sanitation
· Nov: Corruption Free Governance
· Dec: Sugamya Bharat: Accessible India
The highlights of the Press in India Report is given below:
|
1 |
The Total Number of Registered Publications i) Newspaper category (Daily, Tri/Bi-weekly periodicities) ii) Periodicals category (other periodicities) |
1,10,851 16,136 94,715 |
|
2 |
The number of new publicationsregistered during 2015-16 |
5,423 |
|
3 |
Number of publications ceased during2015-16 |
15 |
|
4 |
Number of publications deregisteredduring 2015-16 |
22 |
|
5 |
Percentage of growth of total registered publications over the previous year |
5.13 % |
|
6 |
The largest number of publications registered in any Indian language (Hindi) |
44,557 |
|
7 |
The second largest number of publications registered in any languageother than Hindi (English) |
14,083 |
|
8 |
The State with the largest number ofregistered publications (Uttar Pradesh) |
16,984 |
|
9 |
The State with the second largest number of registered publications(Maharashtra) |
15,260 |
|
10 |
The number of publications that submitted Annual Statements (This figure includes 1,341 Misc. publications) |
27,445 |
|
11 |
The total claimed circulation of publications during 2015-16 i) Hindi Publications ii) English Publications iii) Urdu Publications iv) Marathi v) Gujarati vi) Telugu vii) Odiya viii) Malayalam ix) Tamil x) Kannada xi) Punjabi xii) Assamese xiii) Kashmiri |
61,02,38,581 31,44,55,106 6,54,13,443 5,17,75,006 3,67,88,737 2,88,28,334 2,76,45,134 2,03,12,592 1,55,57,673 93,39,722 64,85,082 59,31,641 13,90,759 1,37,450 |
|
12 |
The largest number of publications that submitted Annual Statements in any Indian language (Hindi). |
14,316 |
|
13 |
The second largest number of publications that submitted Annual Statements in any language (English). |
2,174 |
|
14 |
The largest circulated Daily: “Ananda Bazar Patrika”, Bengali, Kolkata. |
11,50,038 |
|
15 |
The Second largest circulated Daily:“Hindustan Times” English, Delhi. |
9,92,239 |
|
16 |
The largest circulated Hindi Daily:“Punjab Kesari”, Jalandhar |
7,36,399 |
|
17 |
The largest circulated Multi-edition Daily: “Dainik Bhaskar”, Hindi. (45 editions) |
46,14,939 |
|
18 |
The second largest circulated Multi-edition Daily: “The Times of India”, English. (33 editions) |
44,21,374 |
|
19 |
The largest circulated Periodical: “The Sunday Times of India”, English/Weekly edition, Delhi. |
8,02,466 |
|
20 |
The largest circulated Periodical inMalayalam: “Vanitha”,Malayalam/Fortnightly edition, Kottayam. |
6,94,291 |
|
21 |
Total Title Applications Received Titles Approved |
20,999 12,817 |
|
22 |
Titles Deblocked during 2015-16 (As they did not apply for registration within 2 years) |
7,754 |
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.
