I&B Ministry
Senior-level reshuffles and postings in I&B, Prasar Bharati
NEW DELHI: A series of transfers and reshuffling at senior levels of Group A Indian Information Service officers has been made in the media wings of the Information and Broadcasting Ministry and Prasar Bharati to tone its functioning.
A Ministry source told indiantelevision.com that while some transfers were routine, others had been done in an effort to make the functioning of the media units better.
Bhupendra Kainthola has been shifted from the Press Information Bureau in Chandigarh as director (News) in DD News. The transfer orders of B Narayanan who is director in the Directorate of Field Publicity and had received orders to move to DD News have been cancelled and he will continue in his present post.
C Senthil Rajan who was in charge of the Directorate of Advertising and Visual Publicity in Guwahati has been transferred to Delhi as director of the DAVP.
Uday Moray who is additional director general (Media and Communications) in Press Information Bureau in Delhi has been moved to Ahmedabad in the same capacity.
Pashant Pathrabe who was under order of posting as director in All India Radio, Mumbai, has been made director (M&C) in PIB Pune, taking the place of S Srinivasa who has been moved as director (M&C) in PIB Ahmedabad.
Samrat Bandopadhyay who was assistant director (News) in the Shillong Kendra of Doordarshan has been transferred to PIB as assistant director (M and C).
B Doungal who was director (News) in AIR in Guwahati has been transferred as director (M&C) in PIB Delhi. He is succeeded by S N Pradhan, director (News) in the Doordarshan Kendra in Bhubaneswar. Pradhan will hold additional charge of DAVP.
Pradhan’s place is being taken by AK Mishra on repatriation from the Central Board of Film Certification in Cuttack.
Anurag Mishra who was director (M&C) in PIB Delhi is moving to the Indian Institute of Mass Communications as assistant professor. He will be succeeded by Jaideep Bhatnagar, who was working as director of the New Media Wing and also as officer on special duty in IIMC.
R P Upadhyay who has been a correspondent for Prasar Bharati in Kabul now takes over as assistant news registrar in the Registrar of Newspapers in India.
UK Biswas who was assistant director of the Electronic Media Monitoring Committee is moving in the same capacity to directorate of Field Publicity.
A K Srivastava who is presently the deputy director in IIMC moves to Publications Division in the same capacity.
I&B Ministry
Press Sewa Portal digitises 1.5 lakh records, streamlines periodical registrations: MIB
Online system spans 780 districts; Rs 5.6 crore penalties, 88,315 titles cancelled
NEW DELHI: India’s print media registry has quietly moved from dusty files to digital dashboards. The government has digitised more than 1.5 lakh historical records of newspapers and periodicals and shifted registrations fully online through the Press Sewa Portal.
Introduced under the Press and Registration of Periodicals (PRP) Act, 2023, the portal now handles all applications for registering periodicals, replacing the earlier paper-heavy system created under the Press and Registration of Books Act, 1867, which has since been repealed.
The digital shift brings a wide range of services onto a single platform. Publishers can now register new periodicals, revise registrations, transfer ownership, file annual statements, pay penalties online and apply for circulation verification without navigating government offices.
As part of the rollout, specified authorities in 780 districts across India have been onboarded onto the platform. Since 1 March 2024, the portal has processed 11,081 applications and issued certificates across different categories.
The transition has also brought stronger compliance. According to government data, Rs 5.63 crore in penalties has been collected through the portal so far. States such as Maharashtra, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh account for some of the largest penalty collections.
At the same time, the authorities have carried out a major clean-up of inactive or non-compliant publications. A total of 88,315 periodicals have been cancelled nationwide, with Maharashtra, Uttar Pradesh and Delhi among the states reporting the highest number of cancellations.
The government says the system will continue to evolve based on feedback from users. The Press Registrar General of India (PRGI) regularly reviews suggestions to improve services and make compliance easier for publishers.
The full list of registered newspapers and periodicals is available on the PRGI website under the Registered Titles section.
The information was shared in a written reply in the Lok Sabha by minister of state for information and broadcasting and parliamentary affairs L Murugan, responding to a question from Damodar Agrawal.
