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Prasar Bharati planning programme guide
NEW DELHI: In a bid to popularise programmes being broadcast on pubcasters Doordarshan (DD) and All India Radio (AIR), Prasar Bharati Corporation is planning to come out with a programming guide.
The proposal has been okayed by the board of Prasar Bharati, an autonomous body that is entrusted with the responsibility of overseeing the functioning of DD and AIR.
According to sources in Prasar Bharati, the proposal to have a programming guide of sorts is being fine-tuned and a final format and periodicity is being executed in active consultation with the Corporation chief executive, KS Sarma.
Other pubcasters outside India are known to have programming guides that are as glitzy and detailed as they come. BBC World, for example, has a similar product highlighting special programmes with short synopses and photographs of programmes which is mailed to a select list of persons even in India, including journalists and media planners.
Private satellite channels from time to time, of course, undertake such initiatives. Zee Telefilms, for instance, had a programming guide that was distributed through cable operators directly or indirectly associated with Zee Group cable arm, Siti Cable.
The thinking in the Prasar Bharati is that apart from getting the FPC of DD and AIR published in daily newspapers, there is a need to have a product that highlights special programmes.
“At times, some very good programmes on DD and AIR go unnoticed because of lack of adequate publicity. The programming guide or a variant of it may just go on to address such inadequacies,” a senior Prasar Bharati official told indiantelevision.com.
In the past, AIR used to bring out a product in magazine format, called Akashvani, which gave details of various programmes to be broadcast on AIR, apart from containing other related information and articles.
As and when Parasar Bharati finalises the format, the guide is likely to be mailed to government offices initially before the distribution network is expanded.
However, it is not clear at the moment whether Prasar Bharati has thought of the commercial aspect of such a product.
“Because,” points out a media planner with a foreign ad agency in Delhi, “if properly marketed and distributed such a product from Prasar Bharati has the scope of attracting substantial amount of advertising from the TV industry, apart from public service messages in ad format from various government organisations and some NGOs even.”
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India’s AI Future Gets a Neural Kick-Off in Delhi
NDTV IND.AI Summit on 18 Feb 2026 to debate governance, ethics, and India’s big-tech ambitions.
MUMBAI: Artificial intelligence is about to get a very Delhi welcome smart, spirited, and ready to out-think the room. On 18 February 2026, New Delhi plays host to the inaugural NDTV IND.AI Summit, a high-stakes pow-wow that promises to put India’s AI ambitions under the brightest spotlight yet. Billed as a deep dive into how artificial intelligence is already rewiring the nation’s economy, policy playbook, and strategic dreams, the one-day event is curated by NDTV in partnership with the Startup Policy Forum. At its core lies a single, sharp question: how do you unleash AI’s transformative power while keeping trust, equity, and sanity intact?
The guest list reads like a who’s-who of global AI heavyweights. Former UK prime minister Rishi Sunak headlines a special session on AI in governance, sharing hard-won lessons on how the technology is reshaping statecraft and decision-making. Joining the fray are OpenAI’s Chris Lehane, UC Berkeley’s AI safety pioneer Stuart Russell, and Google’s James Manyika, voices that will anchor India firmly in the international conversation on accountability, risk, and cross-border cooperation.
Beyond the policy wonks, the Summit rolls up its sleeves for real-world impact. General Catalyst’s Hemant Taneja and other top-tier investors will unpack how AI is redrawing the rules of capital, innovation, and long-term value creation. Separate tracks will tackle AI’s footprint in workplaces, large-scale adoption, productivity shifts, evolving job roles, and organisational culture. India’s digital public infrastructure, often hailed as a global blueprint for inclusive tech gets its own spotlight, alongside a dedicated segment on AI sovereignty: what does true national control look like in a borderless tech universe?
NDTV CEO and editor-in-chief Rahul Kanwal framed the event’s bigger picture, “The IND.AI Summit is about the kind of future we are choosing to build. India has the scale, the talent, and the moral imagination to shape how AI serves society and this Summit is our way of bringing the most credible voices together to define that direction.”
In a world where AI chatter can feel abstract, the New Delhi gathering aims to ground the debate in India’s own story, one that ties cutting-edge innovation to public purpose, domestic priorities to global influence, and raw ambition to responsible stewardship. Whether you’re an algorithm enthusiast or just mildly curious about tomorrow’s headlines, this Summit is India signalling it’s not just catching the AI wave, it intends to help steer it.
