I&B Ministry
Smriti Irani moved out of MIB as Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore gets independent charge
MUMBAI: There’s change at the top at the ministry of information and broadcasting (MIB). Smriti Irani has been moved out of her post as mininster and kept solely in charge of the textiles ministry. Replacing her is Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore – her minister of state – who has now been given independent charge of the MIB.
That things were afoot in the ministry was sounded out earlier this week. Irani cancelled her trip to Cannes where a strong Indian delegation is attending the film festival. Earlier it was announced that she would be leading an eight member panel to the famed French Riviera cinema confab.
Rathore – a former sportsman and army man – has been a permanent fixture in the ministry for the past four years as a state minister. He has patiently waited on the sidelines over that period and has finally earned his stripes getting independent charge of the MIB as the government gears up for the coming national elections in 2019.
Irani had, a couple of days ago, delivered the Sardar Patel Memorial Lecture 2017 themed ‘Model of Broadcast: Landscape for Democracies’ during the course of which she had called the broadcast news landscape as a “spectator sport” in which the rush for audience ratings has reduced everything to “headlines competing with hashtags” in the wake of social media explosion taking place in the country that has provided a new pathway for information dissemination.
The media has been speculating about the reasons for her departure. Among them: the recent National Film Awards run in with president’s office about his presenting the citations to winners; and her views on fake news and journalists, and wanting to bring in curbs on online media. Sources close to the government rubbish these allegations as canards, stating that Irani has been a loyal party person and she steps into – and out of any – role that the high command asks her get into.
The Narendra Modi led government also announced other changes last evening. Finance minister Arun Jaitley- who has been ailing and was successfully operated for his kidney ailment on Monday – has been replaced by railway minister Piyush Goyal, who has been given its additional charge. That is until Jaitley gets back into action.
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I&B Ministry
Prasar Bharati opens AIR to private content under new policy
NIPP introduces revenue share, sponsored and gratis models
MUMBAI: Radio may be the oldest voice in the room, but it’s learning some very modern tricks. In a bid to stay tuned to changing listener habits, Prasar Bharati has opened the doors of All India Radio to private players under a newly rolled-out content framework. The initiative, titled Notice Inviting Programme Proposals (NIPP), marks a significant shift in how the public broadcaster approaches programming moving from a largely in-house model to a more collaborative, market-aligned ecosystem. Issued by Akashvani’s Directorate General in April 2026, the policy invites private producers, content owners and aggregators to pitch programmes across formats, from radio dramas and documentaries to quiz shows, storytelling and music-led content.
At the heart of the framework lies a three-pronged participation model designed to balance creative freedom with commercial viability. The most prominent route is revenue sharing, where advertising and sponsorship income generated by a programme is split between the producer and the broadcaster. The structure tilts in favour of creators offering a 70:30 split when producers bring in advertising, and 65:35 when monetisation is handled by Prasar Bharati.
Alongside this sits the sponsored model, where producers fully fund and monetise their content, subject to compliance with advertising norms and the AIR Broadcast Code. For those less commercially inclined, a gratis route allows content to be submitted free of cost, with Prasar Bharati retaining all monetisation rights effectively turning the platform into a national distribution channel for diverse voices.
The move comes as legacy media grapples with intensifying competition from private FM networks, streaming platforms and digital audio ecosystems. By repositioning AIR as both a public service broadcaster and a content marketplace, Prasar Bharati appears to be recalibrating its role in a rapidly evolving media landscape.
Importantly, the framework does not dilute editorial control. All submissions must adhere to the AIR Broadcast Code, and proposals are evaluated through a layered process that weighs storytelling quality, production capability, audience appeal and revenue potential. Only proposals crossing a defined threshold move forward, signalling that while access has widened, the bar remains firmly in place.
Operational discipline is another cornerstone of the policy. Producers are required to maintain broadcast-ready content, deliver episode banks in advance and navigate a structured approval process. Crucially, all production costs are borne by the content provider, reinforcing Prasar Bharati’s positioning as a distribution and oversight platform rather than a commissioning entity.
What elevates the initiative further is its scale. The framework spans multiple clusters and stations across India, covering both metro and regional markets, with specific language mandates and submission channels. This not only expands the content pipeline but also deepens linguistic and cultural representation, an area where AIR has historically held an advantage.
In effect, NIPP signals a quiet but meaningful transformation. AIR is no longer just broadcasting to the nation, it is inviting the nation to broadcast with it, blending legacy reach with contemporary content economics in a bid to stay relevant in an increasingly fragmented audio universe.
