New Secretary to I & B

Shri Sunil Arora Assumes Charge as Secretary (I&B) 

Shri Sunil Arora, IAS (Rajasthan: 1980) today assumed charge as Secretary in the Ministry of Information & Broadcasting. Prior to his appointment, Shri Arora was Secretary, Ministry of Skill Development & Entrepreneurship, Government of India. 

Shri Arora has served in various capacities at both the Centre and State. At the Centre he has worked in Ministries/ Departments such as Finance, Textiles and Planning Commission. He also served as Joint Secretary in Ministry of Civil Aviation during 1999- 2002 and CMD, Indian Airlines for five years (two years as additional charge and three years as full charge). In Rajasthan, besides districts postings in Dholpur, Alwar, Nagaur and Jodhpur he was Secretary to the Chief Minister, Rajasthan during 1993- 1998 and Principal Secretary to CM (2005- 2008) and handled Information and Public Relations (IPR), Industries & Investment Departments. Shri Arora is a Post Graduate in English. 

Digital version of Ramcharitmanas

The Prime Minister, Shri Narendra Modi, today released the digital version of Ramcharitmanas, as a set of digital CDs produced by All India Radio. 

Praising the efforts of the artistes who had contributed to this musical production, the Prime Minister said they had performed not just sangeet sadhna, but also sanskriti sadhna and sanskaar sadhna (devotion not just to music, but also to culture and tradition). 

The Prime Minister described the Ramcharitmanas as a great epic which contained the "essence of India." He mentioned how the Indians who had travelled to various parts of the world, such as Mauritius, kept alive their link with India over successive generations, through the Ramcharitmanas. 

The Prime Minister appreciated the role played by All India Radio – Akashvani – in uniting the people and spreading awareness and information in India. He said that he has been informed that All India Radio has approximately 9 lakh hours of audio recordings of various artistes from across the country. He said this was a priceless collection, which should be documented in detail for posterity. 

The Minister for Information and Broadcasting Shri Arun Jaitley, and the Chairman Prasar Bharati Board Shri Suryaprakash were present on the occasion

E-Auction of First Batch of Private FM Radio Phase III Channels Continues;
104 Rounds of Bidding Completed at the End of Day 26

E-Auction of the first batch of private FM radio Phase III channels re-commenced today on 31^st August 2015 at 09.30 AM and during the day, four rounds of bidding took place. Till now, 104 rounds of bidding are over.

At the close of the 26^th day of bidding, 94 channels in 56 cities became provisional winning channels with cumulative provisional winning price of about Rs 1151.6 Crore against their aggregate reserve price of about Rs 459 Crore. Thereby the summation of provisional winning prices surpassed the cumulative reserve price of the corresponding 94 channels by Rs 692.7 Crore or 150.9%. Overall, cumulative provisional winning price exceeded the total reserve price of the first batch i.e. Rs 550.18 Crore by Rs 601.4 Crore or 109.3%. 

The Auction for the first batch comprising 135 FM Channels in 69 existing cities of Phase II began on 27^th July 2015.

            The Auction Activity Requirement (AAR) is 100%. It was increased from 90% after 59^th Round on 14^th August, 2015. The channel allocation stage will continue till the bids are received for any of the 135 channels.

Daily auction report for the day has been put on the Ministry’s website www.mib.nic.in. Bidding will re-commence on 1^st September, 2015 at 09.30 AM.

The following Table summarizes 26 days of bidding:

Day No	Date of Bidding	Status at the end of Round No	No of Provisionally Won Channels	No of Cities	Cumulative Reserve Price of Provisionally Won Channels (In Crore Rs)	Cumulative Provisional Winning Price (In Crore Rs)
1	27.07.2015	4	78	54	357	395
2	28.07.2015	8	79	55	377	479
3	29.07.2015	12	80	55	377	549
4	30.07.2015	16	80	55	391	643
5	31.07.2015	20	80	55	391	714
6	03.08.2015	24	82	56	395	779
7	04.08.2015	28	83	56	395	827
8	05.08.2015	32	83	56	395	869
9	06.08.2015	36	85	56	407	900
10	07.08.2015	40	86	56	425	946
11	10.08.2015	44	87	56	425	969
12	11.08.2015	48	86	56	425	987
13	12.08.2015	52	87	56	425	1005
14	13.08.2015	56	88	56	426	1022
15	14.08.2015	60	91	56	449	1079
16	17.08.2015	64	92	56	451	1090
17	18.08.2015	68	93	56	458	1116
18	19.08.2015	72	94	56	459	1123
19	20.08.2015	76	94	56	459	1128
20	21.08.2015	80	94	56	459	1130.5
21	24.08.2015	84	94	56	459	1134
22	25.08.2015	88	94	56	459	1136.6
23	26.08.2015	92	94	56	459	1139.3
24	27.08.2015	96	94	56	459	1143
25	28.08.2015	100	94	56	459	1147
26	31.08.2015	104	94	56	459	1151.6

Three Madarasas as a Pilot Project for Skill Development of the Minority Community

Union Agriculture Minister Inaugurate Skills Training Centers in Three Madarasas as a Pilot Project for Skill Development of the Minority Community in Bihar

Union Agriculture and Farmer Welfare Minister, Shri Radha Mohan Singh today inaugurated the skill training centers at three Madarasas located in Patna, Motihari and Kesariya in Patna, Bihar. On the occasion Shri Singh said that these project are on the line of Modi Government vision “Sabka Sath Sabka Vikas.” Shri Singh informed that Rs 3.60 crore has been provided to the 3 Madarasas, which will be spent on skill development of minority community. These centers run as pilot project and will be extended to others madarasas, after this they will get certificate and loan will be provided at lower interest rates. Union Agriculture and Farmer Welfare Minister also announced to setting up of R.O plants in these Madarasas to make available clean drinking water for students. 

On the occasion Minister of Minority Affairs, Dr. Najma A. Heptullah said that “ the launch of the skill training centers through traditional educational institutions is an important milestone towards achieving the objective of skilling minorities’ community across the country. This scheme will bring together specialized training providers, leading industry bodies and trainees. The core objective of the scheme is to provide top quality skill training at the neighbourhood as per the demand of the market to the students who are currently enrolled with traditional educational institutions like Madarasas, Maktabs etc or have dropped out.”