I&B Ministry
Reddy okays FII investments in news channels
MUMBAI: Information & broadcasting minister Jaipal Reddy today signed a note allowing foreign institutional investors (FIIs) to invest in television news channels.
The note prepared by the I&B ministry puts the total cap on foreign holdings (FII and foreign direct investments) at 26 per cent. The development validates a report first put out by indiantelevision.com on 22 September under the headline “Govt may allow FII inflows in news channels.”
The I&B ministry is likely to seek cabinet approval for the proposal before October-end. It may be recalled that the government had made it clear that FIIs would not be allowed to invest in news channels in the aftermath of the Star News case. News channels were given till 31 October to meet the government’s uplinking conditions.Market analysts see the I&B’s move to allow FII investments in news channels as having a positive but limited influence on media stocks. The big gainers, of course, are TV Today Network and NDTV, as they currently have hardly any FII holdings.
“FIIs had shown keen interest to invest in TV Today and NDTV in the past, but were not permitted. Aaj Tak and the two NDTV channels are performing well. The stock price will see a boost,” says an analyst in a leading foreign institutional firm.TV18, on the other hand, may not gain substantially with the permission to allow FII investments, a market analyst says. The company has 15.39 per cent FII holding.
What is not clear at this point is whether the easing of foreign investment norms will help clear a regulatory logjam that business news channel CNBC-TV18 has been confronting since late last year that over CNBC’s attempt to increase its holding.
The Foreign Investment Promotion Board (FIPB) had in December last year turned down a proposal from Television Eighteen Ltd. to offload 15 per cent equity stake in its uplinking subsidiary to CNBC Asia. The FIPB did this on the recommendation of the I&B ministry.
Television Eighteen’s uplinking subsidiary that uplinks the CNBC-TV18 channel from India is iNews.com. CNBC Asia holds a 10 per cent stake in iNews.com.
A question mark remains however, over the Zee Group’s Hindi news channel. Zee Telefilms already has an FII holding of 36.75 per cent. The company has already applied for the restructuring of its Zee News channel and is awaiting clearance. “Zee Telefilms can’t hold the news channel as it has a substantial foreign holding,” says an analyst.
I&B Ministry
Government sets up AI governance group to steer policy
AIGEG to align ministries, assess jobs impact, guide AI deployment.
MUMBAI: If artificial intelligence is the engine, the government is now building the dashboard and making sure everyone reads from the same screen. The Centre has constituted a new inter-ministerial body to coordinate India’s approach to AI, formalising a key recommendation from its governance framework and the Economic Survey. The AI Governance and Economic Group (AIGEG), set up by the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology, will act as the central platform to align AI-related policy across ministries, regulators and departments, an attempt to bring coherence to what has so far been a fragmented and fast-evolving landscape.
The group will be chaired by union minister Ashwini Vaishnaw, with minister of state Jitin Prasada as vice chairperson. Its composition reflects both technological and economic priorities, bringing together the principal scientific adviser, the chief economic adviser, and the CEO of NITI Aayog, alongside key secretaries from telecommunications, economic affairs and science and technology. A representative from the National Security Council Secretariat is also part of the group, while the MeitY secretary will serve as member convenor.
At its core, AIGEG is designed to do two things: coordinate and anticipate. On the policy front, it will review existing regulatory mechanisms, issue guidance across sectors and ensure companies remain compliant with evolving legal frameworks. Beyond that, it will oversee national initiatives on AI governance, with a focus on enabling responsible innovation rather than merely regulating it.
The economic dimension is equally central. The group has been tasked with assessing how AI-driven automation could reshape jobs identifying which roles are most at risk, where those impacts may be geographically concentrated, and whether technology will augment or replace human labour. Based on these assessments, it will develop mitigation strategies and transition plans, signalling a more proactive stance on workforce disruption.
In parallel, AIGEG will work with industry stakeholders to chart a long-term roadmap for AI adoption, categorising use cases into “deploy”, “pilot” or “defer” buckets depending on readiness factors such as data availability, skill levels and regulatory clarity. The aim is to move from broad ambition to structured execution deciding not just what can be built, but what should be built now.
The group will function as the apex layer in India’s AI governance architecture, supported by a Technology and Policy Expert Committee that will track global developments, emerging risks and regulatory priorities. Together, the two bodies are expected to shape both the pace and direction of AI adoption in the country.
In a landscape where technology often outruns policy, the creation of AIGEG signals an attempt to close that gap ensuring that India’s AI journey is not just rapid, but also coordinated, accountable and economically grounded.
