I&B Ministry
Sports Ministry sets up working group to update & revise Sports Code
NEW DELHI: A working group has been set up by the Sports Ministry headed by retired Delhi High Judge CK Mahajan to review the National Sports Development Code of India (NSDCI) and suggest changes.
In a report to be submitted in three months, the Group will also examine the NSDCI from both sports governance and legal angles and fine-tune/revise the same with the purpose of making it more precise and succinct.
It will make specific recommendations on preparation of Electoral College and streamlining of State/District bodies.
The Government has been issuing various instructions from time to time and taking several initiatives to ensure transparency and good governance in the Indian Olympic Association (IOA) and in various sports federations of the country.
All the orders, notifications, instructions and circulars issued till 2001 were amalgamated with necessary modifications, into one comprehensive NSDCI 2011, which came into force with immediate effect from 31 January that year.
Further amendments to the various provisions of NSDCI need to be re-examined to ensure suitable amendments to relevant provisions as a lot of developments have taken place in sports sector necessitating more accountability and transparency in the functioning of the sports bodies.
Members of the Group are lawyer Pallavi Shroff, former hockey captain Ajitpal Singh, Arjuna awardee for table tennis Indu Puri, sports journalist Neeru Bhatia, Youth Affairs & Sports Ministry joint secretary Onkar Kedia, and Ministry Advisor Lt Gen Rajiv Bhalla. The Secretary of the Sports Authority of India will be the member secretary.
I&B Ministry
Prasar Bharati sets EPG standards for DD Free Dish platform
New specs define 7-day guide, LCN mapping, and device compatibility.
MUMBAI: Your TV guide just got a backstage pass structured, scheduled, and far more in sync. Prasar Bharati has released detailed technical specifications for Electronic Programme Guide (EPG) services on DD Free Dish, laying down a standardised framework for how channels and programme information are organised and delivered. At the core of the update is a defined EPG data structure, covering genre-based categorisation, scheduling formats, and Logical Channel Numbering (LCN). The aim is simple: make navigation less guesswork and more guided experience across the platform’s over 40 million households.
The specifications also introduce a seven-day programme guide window for each channel, alongside clear rules for channel grouping and LCN mapping effectively deciding not just what you watch, but how easily you find it.
On the technical front, the document outlines requirements for Program Specific Information (PSI) and Service Information (SI), including descriptor usage across tables such as PAT, BAT and NIT. It further details service lists and network linkage parameters, giving OEMs and developers a clearer blueprint for integration.
Importantly, the framework is designed to work seamlessly with television sets equipped with in-built satellite tuners, enabling users to access DD Free Dish directly without additional hardware, an incremental but meaningful step towards simplifying access.
The platform will continue to operate on GSAT-15 transponders, using MPEG-4 compression and DVB-S2 transmission standards, ensuring continuity even as the interface evolves.
While largely technical, the move signals a broader push towards standardisation and user-friendly discovery in India’s free-to-air ecosystem because sometimes, the real upgrade isn’t what’s on screen, but how easily you get there.
