The government is sticking to its guns as far as the issue of a sectoral cap of 20 per cent for setting up a Direct-to-Home (DTH) TV platform is concerned despite all pleas from broadcasters.

Information and Broadcasting Minister Sushma Swaraj on Wednesday was quite categorical in an interview to the Financial Express that there would be no changes made to the original DTH guidelines.

Swaraj‘s consistent refrain on the subject despite strong lobbying indicates that entry into the DTH club will prove virtually impossible for most aspirants. There is a distinct possibility that when DTH does take off, there may be only one or at the most two competing players.

And with the government‘s own Videsh Sanchar Nigam Limited (VSNL) announcing the formation of a five-member panel to chalk out its entry into DTH it all seems pretty well sewed up on that front. Who else if at all any remains to be seen.

The meeting of the Group of Ministers (GoM) on convergence, scheduled for Thursday, has been postponed till further notice.

The dilly-dallying on the issue raises serious doubts regarding Minister for Information Technology Pramod Mahajan‘s assurance in New Delhi on Wednesday. He said the Government would try its best to introduce the bill in the Budget session. "We will introduce the Bill in the Budget session. It will then go to the standing committee. We hope to clear it either in the Monsoon session or the Winter session this year,‘‘ he said.

Mahajan said that it was yet to be decided who would pilot the bill in Parliament. The three ministries directly involved with the bill are the ministries of Information & Broadcasting, Communications and Information Technology.

Minister for Information and Broadcasting Sushma Swaraj had said in Bangalore almost a month ago (9 December) that the Government proposed to introduce the bill during the budget Session. Since then the GoM has not met.

The GoM last met on 6 December and sent the Convergence Bill draft back to jurist Fali Nariman who headed the sub-group which wrote it in the first place.

So where is the redrafted draft. Last heard the GoM was slated to meet once again on 21 December and send the redrafted draft to the Cabinet. That meeting was also deferred. The reason - members of the group were busy with Parliament proceedings.