News Broadcasting
Prasar Bharati exempt from service tax
In what should come as a relief to pubcaster Prasar Bharati, the Solicitor General of India has clarified that Prasar Bharati need not pay service tax.
It may be recalled that when finance minister Yashwant Sinha presented his budget he had proposed that the pubcaster should be made to pay “since it is a commercial organisation, Prasar Bharati does not need the exemption from the five per cent service tax.”
Following this, Prasar Bharati referred the matter to the information & broadcasting ministry, which in turn sought the solicitor general’s directive on the matter through the law ministry.
Meanwhile, in an unrelated development, the Standing Committee on Information Technology has reportedly criticised the I&B Ministry over its slow completion of projects. The committee slammed the ministry’s tendency to “wake up” to the need to use budgetary allocations towards the end of the financial year. Timely completion of projects will ensure that the public derives the full benefits of broadcasting/telecasting services, the committee said.
The committee noted that out of an outlay of Rs 3,250 million (revised to Rs 2,900 million) provided to the ministry for schemes pertaining to national broadcaster Doordarshan, the ministry utilised only Rs 1,578.6 million till February 2002.
News Broadcasting
India Today Group sweeps top honours at Ramnath Goenka Awards
Journalists recognised for fearless investigative and civic reporting.
MUMBAI: India Today Group just turned the Ramnath Goenka Awards into its own trophy cabinet because when your reporters dig this deep, even the judges have to award a clean sweep. India Today Group journalists have secured multiple top honours at the latest edition of the prestigious Ramnath Goenka Excellence in Journalism Awards, reinforcing the network’s legacy as the gold standard of Indian journalism. The awards were conferred by vice president C. P. Radhakrishnan at a ceremony held on 27 March 2026.
Sreya Chatterjee won in the ‘Investigative Reporting – Broadcast’ category for her powerful India Today TV report ‘Operation Illegals: The Alarming Rise in Bangladeshi Infiltration Across India’s Fragile Eastern Frontier’. The investigation stood out for its depth, on-ground rigour and national relevance.
In the ‘Civic Journalism – Print/Digital’ category, Sreya Chatterjee along with Arvind Ojha were honoured for their indiatoday.in report on unregulated water extraction and the ‘Tanker Mafia’ in Delhi’s Bawana Industrial Area. The story exposed critical systemic gaps and environmental challenges affecting daily life.
Additionally, aajtak.in was recognised in the ‘Investigative Reporting – Print/Digital’ category for its hard-hitting exposé ‘The Surrogate Mother Market’, which highlighted the human, legal and ethical dimensions of the surrogacy ecosystem.
India Today Group emerged as the only network honoured in Investigative Journalism across both Print/Digital and Broadcast categories. The wins reflect the strength of its multi-platform newsroom and its unwavering commitment to credible, high-impact reporting that informs public discourse and drives accountability.
In an era when speed often trumps substance, these awards remind us that the most powerful stories are still the ones dug out with courage, told with clarity, and delivered with conscience, one fearless byline at a time.
