The Hindu Business Line : Govt examining issues on lapsed convergence Bill

The Minister for Information & Broadcasting, Mr Jaipal Reddy, and the Managing Director & CEO of Sify, Mr Ramaraj, at a press conference in New Delhi on Friday. — Ramesh Sharma

New Delhi , Aug. 20

THE Government is examining various issues relating to the lapsed Convergence Bill including whether or not to have a single regulator to deal with carriage and content. A final view would be taken early next year.

"The Bill was considered in 2002 by Parliamentary Standing Committee headed by Mr Somnath Chatterjee, now the Lok Sabha Speaker. The issues involved were whether to have one grand convergence regulator to deal with carriage and content or one regulator for carriage and one for content. The Government is yet to take a final view on this," said Mr Jaipal Reddy, Minister for Information and Broadcasting, on the sidelines of a Sify conference.

He added that dealing with content was more difficult than dealing with carriage. "A decision has to be taken on whether there should be a separate regulator for content. We expect the issues to be sorted out by early next year."

The Ministry is also examining the report of the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India for FM radio licensing. On whether existing players will be allowed to migrate to the new licensing scheme, he said that the issue was also under consideration.

Mr Reddy further said that a project to preserve Indian culture in digital form was under formulation.

"It will be foolproof concept. The project is under formulation. We have a both tangible and intangible heritage including manuscripts, folklore and folk dances," he said.

"It is at a conceptual stage and the project is estimated at about Rs 250 crore."

More Stories on : Radio/TV | Convergence

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