I&B Ministry simplifies Annual Renewal process for existing TV channels as part of “Ease of Doing Business”

28th SIMCON to be held on Dec 9th and 10th - M Venkaiah Naidu

I&B Minister addresses Economic Editors Conference

Shri M Venkaiah Naidu, Minister for Information & Broadcasting has said that as part of the Government’s initiative of “Ease of Doing Business”, the Ministry of Information & Broadcasting has completely done away with the process of obtaining an “Annual Renewal” for TV channels in the current form. He said this at the Economic Editors Conference here today. Sh Arvind Panagriya, Vice Chairman NITI Aayog and other senior officials were also present during the occasion.Elaborating further, Shri Naidu said that Broadcasters who have been given the permission for Uplinking or Downlinking can continue their operations by simply paying the annual permission fee upto 60 days before the due date, which by itself will be treated as permission for continuation of the channel for a further period of one year. Adding further, Shri Naidu said that this initiative by the Ministry is expected to provide a major relief for ease of doing business for the permission holding companies of the TV channels and teleports.  He said a total of 963 Channels and Teleports shall benefit from this decision. The Ministry was fully committed to the vision of the present Government and the Hon’ble Prime Minister to promote the Ease of Doing Business and would continue to take more steps in consultation with stakeholders.

Shri Naidu also announced that the 28^th SIMCON (State Information Minister’s Conference) would take place in New Delhi on Dec 9^th and 10^th, during which Information Ministers from States and Principal Secretaries, Information would participate. Critical issues pertaining to Films Sector, Community Radio & Social Media would be on the agenda

Elaborating further, the Minister mentioned that macro-economic indicators were looking better than three years back. The International Monetary Fund forecast was positive for the Indian economy with a predicted growth rate of 7.5 per cent during fiscal year 2016-17. The FDI inflows had also increased by 29 per cent during April 2015-March 2016 to reach US $ 40 billion, as compared to the same period last year. The other indicators had also infused a positive outlook with the foreign exchange reserves standing at US $ 367.14 billion in the week up to October 2016. The retail inflation stood at 4.31% in September, the lowest in 13 months. Another critical sector for the economy that is agriculture sector was expected to grow at four per cent this fiscal.On the issue of Black Money, the Minister mentioned that Demonetization would provide a fillip to formal economy, improve tax collection, open up opportunities for poor and middle classes, badly hit funding for arms smuggling, espionage and terrorism and put an end to large circulation of counterfeit currency.