NEW DELHI: The role of the pubcaster is coming under review to give it a push in the wake of growth of private satellite television channels and the government?s design to make it financially self-running. The Information and Broadcasting (I&B) Ministry has constituted a seven-member expert committee to review the institutional framework of public broadcaster Prasar Bharati, including its relationship with the government.

Sam Pitroda, advisor to the Prime Minister on Public Information Infrastructure and Innovations, is the chairman of the expert committee.

The committee will have Prasar Bharati CEO Jawhar Sircar as its convener. It will also examine the continuing role of the pubcaster and measures needed to ensure technical upgradation of the organisation.

The timing of the setting up of the committee coincides with the recent announcements of fresh financial packages to the pubcaster, and the government undertaking to pay salaries of employees who had been employed with the pubcaster as on 5 October 2007.

The committee will review the status of implementation of the recommendations made by various committees that have undertaken study of Prasar Bharati, namely, the Sengupta committee, the Bakshi Committee and the Narayanamurthy committee and suggest a road map for enhancing the reach and potential of the public broadcaster.

It can suggest measures to sustain, strengthen and amplify Prasar Bharati`s role as a public broadcaster with special reference to its relationship with government in the emerging context.

It will also suggest measures to digitise the archival material in the possession of Doordarshan (DD) and All India Radio (AIR) including material from independence movement era, and develop enabling infrastructure, in the form of data digitalisation systems, data centers and networks, etc.

The committee will suggest ways of using the new media to deliver digital content - both in broadcast mode (DTH) and in a demand-based mode (Free on social media like You-Tube, and on payment through IPTV).

It will work out a strategy for creating a network of domestic and overseas business partners for ensuring wider reach to a worldwide audience including creating an exclusive overseas service.

The members of the committee are retired IAS officer Asha Swaroop, who had earlier served as secretary in the I&B Ministry, B K Gairola (Mission Director e-Governance), Shekhar Kapur (a member of the National Innovation Council), Professor M P Gupta of IIT Delhi; and Jitendra Shankar Mathur, additional secretary and nominated member on the Prasar Bharati Board.

NEW DELHI: The government is speeding up its views on the recommendation of the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) that the government and its entities should not enter television broadcasting and distribution. The Information & Broadcasting (I&B) Ministry has set up an inter-ministerial committee to examine all reports received from Trai relating to television broadcasting services before the appropriate authority in the government takes policy decisions.

The committee, chaired by the additional secretary in the I&B Ministry, will have representatives from the Departments of Information Technology, Telecommunications, Economic Affairs, and Industrial Policy and Promotion apart from a few experts. The representatives from these departments will not be below the rank of a joint secretary.

The two joint secretaries (Broadcasting) in the I&B Ministry will serve as member secretaries depending on the subject being taken up by the committee.

The experts included in the committee are: chairman and managing director of the Broadcasting Engineering Consultants India Ltd, the Director-Generals of Doordarshan and All India Radio, and the Engineers-in-Chief of Doordarshan (DD) and All India Radio (AIR).

An I&B Ministry notice says the Committee may co-opt any number of experts considered necessary from time to time.

Recommendations of the committee on Trai?s reports relating to television broadcasting services would be communicated to the I&B secretary and thereafter, to the I&B Minister for further instructions.

Ministry sources told indiantelevision.com that first on the agenda of the committee will be the latest report of Trai that says central government, state governments, their entities or their joint ventures should not be allowed into broadcasting and distribution services.

The I&B Ministry is also preparing to seek opinion of Trai on surrogate ownership by political parties or politicians.

The earlier recommendation by Trai in 2008 that the government entities should not be allowed in distribution or broadcasting space was gathering dust. Now there seems to be a certain seriousness, evident from the fact that Tamil Nadu state-owned Arasu Cable TV Corp. Ltd. is yet to get a DAS (digital addressable system) licence. Arasu was earlier granted a licence for cable TV operations but with a caveat that it was conditional and depended on the government taking a final view on Trai recommendations.

Trai?s fresh recommendations will now be under the consideration of the inter-ministerial committee before the government lends its final approval. The issue gathers importance as several state governments have expressed intent to enter into the television broadcasting space.