NEW DELHI: The Information and Broadcasting Ministry has prepared a cabinet note to bring about financial restructuring of Prasar Bharati and ensure all operating expenses should be borne by the Broadcasting body?s internal revenues.

The Note will come up before Union Cabinet soon as inter-ministerial discussions on the same are in their final stages.

The note is based on recommendations of a Group of Ministers attached to Prasar Bharati, which suggested that Government Non-Plan support should be extended for meeting the total expenses on salary and salary-related expenses and augmentation and replacement of capital assets for the five years from 2011-12 to 2015-16.

The GoM had also recommended that accumulated arrears of space segment and spectrum charges up to 31 March 2011 should be waived.

Section 22 of the Prasar Bharati Act 1990 should be restored in its original form to exempt the pubcaster from paying any income tax.

All loans paid to the public service broadcaster should be converted into grants-in-aid, the GoM had said, adding that interests accrued on the loans should be waived.

Prasar Bharati?s revenue stood at Rs 10.38 billion for the nine-month period ended 31 December 2011. The commercial revenue by Doordarshan and All India Radio during this period was Rs 7.48 billion and Rs 2.45 billion respectively while Rs 444 million came from ?other resources?.

In 2010-11, Prasar Bharati?s revenue climbed to Rs 12.71 billion, from Rs 11.46 billion a year ago. Out of the net revenue, Rs 9.44 billion came from DD and Rs 2.76 billion from AIR as net commercial revenue. A total of Rs 505.8 million came from other resources.

Prasar Bharati?s operational costs during fiscal 2010-11 rose to Rs 27.45 billion, out of which Rs 14.69 billion was for Doordarshan. The increase in the operational cost has been attributed to the hike in the salary of employees following the 6th Pay Commission.

NEW DELHI : Information and Broadcasting Minister Ambika Soni today said that self-regulation by the electronic media has to be given a chance as this was a surer way of improving things than forcing regulations on the television or radio channels.

Soni said the progress of action against channels may appear slow, but the government had offending channels to go off air for short periods even as she added that she would not like to cancel the licence of any channel, though the Ministry had the power to do so.

She was responding to Press Council of India Chairman Justice Markanday Katju who said he had seen the self-regulation of TV channels working effectively and 90 per cent of the software on television channels was entertainment and just ten per cent dealt with crucial issues facing the nation.

She was giving her inaugural address at the 9th Annual Summit on Entertainment and Growth organised by ASSOCHAM, Focus 2012 on ?Digitization for Inclusive Growth?, where Justice Katju delivered the keynote address. Several awardees of the National Film Awards were felicitated by Film Federation of India President Vinod K Lamba. Two documents ? ?Digitizing Indian Broadcasting? by ASSOCHAM and Centre for Media Studies, and ?Digital Transformation in entertainment and media? by ASSOCHAM and PwC ? were also released.

She admitted that in the desire for growth, it was unfortunate that some provisions of the Cable TV Networks (Regulation) Act had been overlooked by the media, but she said that self-regulation could help to correct this malaise.

Soni also justified digitisation of cable addressable systems and the sunset dates as she said any delay will only help the direct-to-home operators. She said that it would also bring in transparency and get over the dependence of channels on television rating points (TRPs) which were based on studies in less than 10,000 TV households. Cable operators must not lose sight of the fact that DTH was growing at the rate of around one million households per month.

She said that the government had had exhaustive consultations with stakeholders on all issues including the carriage fee, and the main aim of the new regulations had been to benefit the consumer.

She said the biggest benefit of digitisation would be that the viewer would be able to choose channels of his or her choice out of 900 channels on offer.

Referring to the National Film Awards given yesterday which showed a resurgence of regional cinema, she announced that all award-winning films would be shown on Doordarshan.

Answering another point made by Justice Katju, she said that while the malaise of paid news existed it was difficult to detect.

Earlier, Justice Katju was unsparing in his criticism of the media which he said worked only as a commercial enterprise which had blocked progress and had no care of the consequences on the people. He said the media had lost a sense of propriety and was diverting from the real issues.

He was categorical that self-regulation would not work and it was necessary to bring in a regulatory body which was statutory but not headed by anyone in the government. Stressing that he was a great votary of freedom of the media, he said he wanted regulation, and not control.

He said freedom of the press was like a knife which could be used to help or stab the people. At a time when 90 per cent of even the educated believed in casteism and superstition, it was very wrong for TV channels to propagate this through various serials, commercial advertisements, and the presence of so-called sages.

"Astrology is pure nonsense, but gets high TRPs and so media stoops to this low level," he added.

While Article 19(1)(a) is always referred to whenever the channels feel their freedom is being trampled upon, they forget the mention of promotion of scientific temper in the Fundamental Duties listed in Article 51.

He said cricket had become the opium of the masses in a country which saw an average of 47 farmer suicides a day and 47 per cent of the children were under-nourished.

Lamba said in his address called for a consultative committee of the film industry and the Ministry so that thorny subjects could be ironed out.

He said though the issue of service tax had been ironed out to an extent by the government, there were many other problems afflicting the film industry. He wanted the centre and states to help the growth of regional cinema.

He said the present losses because of piracy amount to around Rs 4.3 billion, but he was confident this would come down with newer technologies coming in.

NEW DELHI: Doordarshan has commenced telecast of a new weekend series inspired by the path shown by the father of the nation, Mahatma Gandhi.

As the protagonist of the series says, ?Gandhiji! Roads named after you are in every city and everyone walks on them but no one walks on the path shown by you. I will walk.?

?Ek Kiran Roshni Ki?, telecast every Friday and Saturday at 9 pm on the national channel DD One, is the story of Roshni, a girl who fights against injustice and brings about social change by following in Gandhiji?s footsteps. The corruption, glamour and social etiquette of the modern world do not influence her, her love for humanity or her simplicity.

Directed by Abbas Gazdhar with music by Ravindra Jain, the series stars Zarina Wahab, Anang Desai, Sheena Bajaj, Supreet Raina, Sonam Arora, Kainaz, Angel Jain, Tanushree Kaushik, Pannkaj Beri, Seema Tambe, Vimarsh Raina, Navneet Hullad and Rajshree Rani in the main cast. The series has been produced by Ashwini Sidwani and Dharmendra Biswas is the cameraman.

NEW DELHI: Doordarshan will telecast live the presentation of the Padma awards by President Pratibha Devisingh Patil tomorrow.

The telecast of the live civil investiture ceremony from Rashtrapati Bhavan will commence from 11 am.

While maestro Bhupen Hazarika and renowned cartoonist Mario de Miranda were named for the Padma Vibhushan posthumously, film personalities Dharmendra, Shabana Azmi, and Mira Nair were honoured with the Padma Bhushan.

Music director Vanraj Bhatia, filmmaker Priyadarshan, and noted spiritual singer Anup Kalota were named among others for Padma Shri in the announcement by the President on the eve of the country?s 63rd Republic Day.

NEW DELHI: Prasar Bharati has earned revenue of Rs 10.38 billion for the first nine months of this fiscal.

The commercial revenue by Doordarshan and All India Radio during the nine-month period under review was Rs 7.48 billion and Rs 2.45 billion respectively while Rs 444 million came from ?other resources?.

For the fiscal ended March 2011, net revenue stood at Rs 12.71 billion (subject to reconciliation), of which Rs 9.44 billion came from DD and Rs 2.76 billion came from AIR as net commercial revenue. A total of Rs 505.8 million came from other resources.

Prasar Bharati?s operational costs during fiscal 2010-11 went up to Rs 27.45 billion, out of which Rs 14.69 billion was that of Doordarshan.

According to Minister of State for Information and Broadcasting S Jagathrakshakan, the increase in the operating cost can be attributed to the hike in the salary of employees following the 6th Pay Commission.

Jagathrakshakan also said a Group of Ministers had suggested financial restructuring of the Prasar Bharati and that all operating expenses should be borne by the Broadcasting body?s internal revenues.

The GoM also said that for the five years from 2011-12 to 2015-16, Government Non-Plan support would be extended for meeting the total expenses on salary and salary-related expenses and augmentation/replacement of capital assets.

NEW DELHI: Information and Broadcasting Minister Ambika Soni said Saturday that the appointment of a new chief executive officer for Prasar Bharati - Jawhar Sircar ? would result in expediting all pending issues in the pubcaster, especially those related to employees.

Vacancies in Doordarshan and All India Radio would be filled and efforts will be made to make all stations and those in the border areas functional, Soni said.

"While maintaining the autonomous structure of Prasar Bharati, I want issues related to staff resolved because they have been pending for a very long time," Soni told reporters here.

"We have recently formed recruitment rules after forming a recruitment board. We are now awaiting the clearances from the Department of Personnel and Training. So wherever there are slots vacant, they should be filled urgently," she added.

"More programmes should be generated in local languages and Doordarshan and Akashvani should reflect a picture of the entire country," Soni said.