Chairman wants more teeth for the Press Council

The Press council Chairman Markandey Katju has written to Prime Minister Manmohan singh suggesting that electronic media be brought under its purview and be given powers to stop government advertisement ,suspension of license of that media for certain period if it behaves in a very obnoxious manner. “I have poor opinion of the media and added that “they should be working for the interest of the people .They are not working for the interest of the people and sometime they are positively working in an anti people manner .Justice Katju told Karan Thapar on the CNN-IBN ‘s Devil’s Advocate programme.

Railways Take Measures to Prevent Misuse of ‘Tatkal’ Scheme

In order to prevent misuse of ‘Tatkal’ Scheme of reserving train tickets, Indian Railways have taken following measures:-

 With a view to reduce the chances of misuse of e-ticketing facility by IRCTC agent, Indian Railways has decided to stop Quick Book Option and cash card booking between 8 AM to 9 AM. Further, individual users are permitted to book only two tickets between 8 AM to 9 AM.

 Access to ‘Tatkal’ booking to the agents booking through internet has been denied during the opening hours of reservation in the morning between 8 AM to 9 AM.

 The provision of carrying one of the eight prescribed identity cards by any one of the passengers booked on ‘Tatkal’ ticket, introduced from 11th February 2011 to prevent transfer of ‘Tatkal’ tickets.

 Facility of change of name is not permissible on ‘Tatkal’ tickets.

 Regular checks are conducted by senior officials at Reservation Offices particularly during opening hours in the morning to check the activities of touts and other unscrupulous elements.

 The load of IRCTC’s server has been augmented to ensure easy accessibility to passengers booking tickets through internet.

 Refund rules have been made stringent to discourage frivolous and proxy bookings.

Amendment of the Election Symbols (Reservation and Allotment) Order, 1968.
Allotment of common symbol to candidates of registered un-recognized political parties.

Under the provisions of the Election Symbols (Reservation and Allotment) Order, 1968, candidates put up by registered unrecognized political parties at elections were hitherto allotted election symbols by the Returning Officers of the constituencies concerned after the last date for withdrawal of candidature as per the choice of symbol given by the candidates from the list of free symbols. If candidates of two political parties opted for the same symbol in a constituency, the Returning Officer decided by draw of lots. In this process, it may so happen that the candidates set up by a political party in many constituencies may get different symbols in different constituencies.

2. Registered un-recognized political parties have been feeling aggrieved by the above provisions in the Symbols Order. Some of these political parties have filed petitions before the Hon’ble Supreme Court praying for allotment of common symbol to their candidates.

3. In view of the above requests, and appreciating the reasonableness of these prayers before the Hon’ble Supreme Court, the Election Commission informed the Hon’ble Supreme Court that it would consider the issue to make appropriate modifications in the Symbol Order. The Commission has accordingly made certain additional provisions in the Symbols Order vide its notification dated 16-09-11 to provide for one time concession of allotment of common symbol to candidates sponsored by registered unrecognized political parties during a general election. To avail of such concession, the newly formed registered unrecognized parties will have to contest general election from at least 10% of the constituencies in a State, subject to minimum of 5 Assembly constituencies in a State having less than 50 Assembly Constituencies, and 2 Parliamentary Constituencies in a State having less than 20 Parliamentary constituencies. The intimation of such constituencies should be given to the Election Commission at least 3 clear days before the date of issue of election notification along with the choice of 10 symbols from the list of free symbols.

4. The above concession of allotment of common symbol to the candidates of a registered unrecognized party will be only as a one-time facility either at a general election to the House of the People or to a State Legislative Assembly, as the party may choose, and a party that has availed of this concession once will not be eligible for the concession in any subsequent general election.

5. A political party which was a recognized party earlier and which is not entitled now to the facility of allotment of any particular symbol to its candidates, will also be granted a one time facility of being allotted its earlier reserved symbol at a general election either to the Lok Sabha or to legislative assembly of a State, subject to fulfillment of the conditions mentioned above.

Recognition of parties as a State party

6. The Commission has also liberalized the criteria for recognition of parties as State Parties. Under the existing provisions of the Symbol Order, a registered party has to fulfill any of the following conditions for recognition as a State Party:

(i) A political party should secure at least six percent of the total valid votes polled during general election to a State Legislative Assembly and should, in addition, win at least two seats in that Assembly, or the party should win at least three percent of the total number of seats or three seats in the Legislative Assembly, whichever is more;

(ii) Alternatively, a political party should secure at least six percent of the total valid votes polled in a State during a general election to Lok Sabha and win at least one seat in the Lok Sabha from that State, or the party should win at least one seat in the Lok Sabha for every 25 seats or any fraction thereof allotted to that State.

7. Under the liberalized criteria, one more clause has been added to provide that even if a Party fails to win any seat in a State in a general election to the Lok Sabha or Legislative Assembly of the State, the party will still be eligible for recognition as State Party if it secures 8% or more of the total valid votes polled in the State.

India made Chariman of United Nations South Asian Regional Commission for Tourism

India has been made Chairman of United Nations South Asian regional commission for tourism. The chairmanship of the Commission was with Iran for the last four years. This was announced at ongoing United Nations World Tourism Organization (UNWTO) Conference at Gyeongju,South Korea today. Union Tourism Minister, Shri .Subodhkant Sahai is presently leading the Indian delegation at UNWTO meeting in South Korea. Shri Sahai while addressing member countries at UNWTO meet at Gyeongju said, “It is a great privilege for me to address this 19th General Assembly of UNWTO today in this in this beautiful coastal city of Gyeongiu and by making India Chairman of United Nations South Asian regional commission for tourism for another four years signifies the confidence of various countries in India and the efforts of the Indian government in promotion of tourism in the country as well as across the globe in responsible and sustainable manner to bring in inclusive growth”. Shri Sahai further said, “Sustainable, safe and honorable tourism are the pillars of India’s strategy and the schemes and programs implemented by Government of India are primarily focused on inclusive development, integrated with the overall anti-poverty strategy”.

It has been estimated that by the year 2016-17, the growth in the sector would enable additional employment generation of around 25 million persons. There would be a need for additional 42 million skilled persons in hospitality sector alone. We are therefore giving a major boost to the skill development in the sector by harnessing both public and private sector educational and training infrastructure of the country. We are also encouraging our academic Institutes to go in for MOU’s with reputed counterparts of other countries for achieving academic excellence. I would urge UNWTO to intensify its efforts in providing the support to member countries in developing a skill development framework based on successful best practices across the globe. India mandates promotion of tourism in the country in responsible and sustainable manner government of India is in process of establishment of Sustainable Tourism Criteria for India (STCI) and indicators for the accommodation sector and tour operators, the Minister added.

Foreign Tourist Arrivals and Foreign Exchange Earnings in September 2011

Foreign Tourist Arrivals (FTAs) during the Month of September, 2011 was 4.01 lakh as compared to FTAs of 3.69 lakh during the month of September, 2010 and 3.31 lakh in August, 2009. There has been a growth of 8.7% in September, 2011 over September, 2010 as compared to a growth of 11.6 % registered in September 2010 over September, 2009. The growth of 8.7% in September 2011 is higher than 5.3% in Augustt, 2011. FTAs during the period January-September, 2011 were 42.20 lakh with a growth of 10.0%, as compared to the FTAs of 38.35 lakh with a growth of 8.0 % during January-September 2010 over the corresponding period of 2009.

Foreign Exchange Earnings (FEE) during the month of September 2011 were Rs. 5748 crore as compared to Rs. 4678 crore in September 2010 and Rs 3798 crore in September 2009. The growth rate in FEE in Rs terms in September 2011 was 22.9% as compared to 23.2 % in September 2010 over September 2009. FEE from tourism in rupee terms during January-September 2011 were Rs. 53761 crore with a growth of 16.6%, as compared to the FEE of Rs. 46115 crore with a growth of 22.7% during January- September 2010 over the corresponding period of 2009. FEE in US$ terms during the month of September 2011 were US$ 1208 million as compared to FEE of US$ 1015 million during the month of Septembert 2010 and US$ 785 million in September 2009. The growth rate in FEE in US$ terms in September 2011 over September 2010 was 19% as compared to the growth of 29.3 % in September 2010 over September 2009. FEE from tourism in terms of US$ during January-September 2011 were US$ 11886 million with a growth of 18.7%, as compared to US$ 10012 million with a growth of 30.5 % during January-August 2010 over the corresponding Period of 2009.

Proposal for amendment In Policy Guidelines for Uplinking/Downlinking of TV channels approved

Union Cabinet has approved the proposal of the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting to recast the existing "Policy Guidelines for Uplinking and Downlinking of TV channels". Ministry of Information and Broadcasting has proposed to carry out various amendments in the existing policy to reflect the fast evolving electronic media landscape in the country. These amendments were proposed based on an extensive consultation with Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI). The amendments envisage, inter-alia, significant changes in the eligibility criteria of companies seeking to operate TV channels in India in order to ensure that only serious and credible operators are permitted to operate such channels and the electronic media landscape is not unnecessarily crowded by non-serious players.

Ministry of Information and Broadcasting has two sets of Policy Guidelines for permission/regulation of private satellite TV channels in India. While regulation of foreign TV channels uplinked from abroad and distributed in India for public viewing is governed by "Policy Guidelines for Downlinking of Television channels" notified on 11th November, 2005, private TV channels which are uplinked from India are governed by "Guidelines for Uplinking from India" notified on 2nd December 2005. Uplinking Guidelines also provide for permission and regulation of Teleports. After these Guidelines were notified, there has been an exponential growth of television channels, especially during the last few years. Till 31.08.2011 the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting granted permission to 745 private satellite TV channels out of which 366 TV channels were permitted in the category of 'News and Current Affairs' and 379 in the category of 'Non-News and Current Affairs'.

Cabinet has taken following decisions in this regard:

(i) Net worth criteria for Uplinking of 'Non-News and Current Affairs' channels and Downlinking of foreign channels has been revised from Rs.1.5 crores to Rs. 5 crores for the first channel and Rs. 2.5 crores for each additional channel.

(ii) For uplinking of 'News and Current Affairs' channels the net worth / criteria has been increased from Rs. 3 crores to Rs. 20 crores for the first channel and Rs. 5 crores for each additional channel.

(iii) For Teleports the net worth criteria would be uniform irrespective of channel capacity. The net worth criteria would remain Rs. 3 crores for the first teleport and Rs.1 crore for every additional teleport.

(iv) All TV channels would be required to operationalize their TV channels within a time frame of one year from the date of permission, for which Non-News and current Affairs channels will have to sign a Performance Bank Guarantee (PBG) of Rs.1 crore whereas News and Current Affairs channels will have to give a Performance Bank Guarantee for Rs. 2 crores. In the event of non-operationalisation of the permitted channel within a period of one year, the PBG will be forfeited and permission cancelled.

(v) The period of permission/registration for uplinking/downlinking of channels will be uniform at 10 years.

(vi) One of the persons occupying the top management position i.e., Chairperson or Managing Director or Chief Executive Officer or Chief Operating Officer or Chief Technical Officer or Chief Financial Office in the applicant company should have a minimum of 3 years of prior experience in a Media company, for both News and Non-News channels.

(vii) Proposals of merger, demerger and amalgamation will be allowed under the provisions of Companies Act, after obtaining the permissions of the Ministry of I&B as per procedure.

(viii) Renewal of the permissions of TV channels will be considered for a period of 10 years at a time subject to the condition that the channel should not have been found guilty of violating the terms and conditions of permission including violations of the Programme and Advertisement Code on 5 occasions or more.

(ix) The channels operating in India and uplinked from India but meant only for foreign viewership should be required to ensure compliance of the rules and regulations of the target country for which content is being produced and uplinked.

(x) Permission fee for uplinking/downlinking of TV channels and setting up of teleports would be Rs. 2 lakhs per channel/teleport per annum. Whereas permission fee for downlinking of TV channels uplinked from India would be Rs.5 lakhs per channel per annum. Permission fee for downlinking of TV channels uplinked from abroad would be Rs 15 lakhs per channel per annum.

Meeting with State Government on Emigration Management Begins

The two-day 4th Consultation Meeting with State Government to discuss various emigration and Diaspora related issues began . Inaugurating the function, Shri Vayalar Ravi, Union Minister of Overseas Indian Affairs the Minister said that three new Protector of Emigrants offices in the States of Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh and in Guwahati for the North-Eastern States will be opened. He also said that a scheme will be launched to provide resettlement expenses, insurance cover and pension provisions for emigrant Indian workers.