The Hindu : `Radio stations under new sectors likely'

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Saturday, Mar 09, 2002

International

International

`Radio stations under new sectors likely'

By B. Muralidhar Reddy

ISLAMABAD March 8 . India was looking at the possibility of allowing non-government sectors to set up community radio stations, thereby narrow-casting programmes, the Information Minister, Sushma Swaraj, said here today.

Giving an overview of the Indian media at the second SAARC Information Ministers Conference, she said that there were 52,000 newspapers in different languages, 120 television channels reaching 70 million homes besides the Government and private run radio stations which covered 97 per cent of the population.

The film industry produced 67,000 films since the first motion picture was made in India in 1931. The country on an average produced 800 films in different languages every year.

"The quality of the films and capability of the skilled professionals of this industry has received international acclaim, the latest being "Lagaan" and "Monsoon Wedding". It was no wonder that export of Indian films had doubled almost every year in the last three years. In the coming years, digital cinema would become popular. It would not only ensure visual quality but would also bring down production cost, Ms. Swaraj said.

India had a large infrastructure of media, including a huge reservoir of skilled manpower, training facilities and engineering hardware. "We will be happy and willing to share our knowledge and experience with our friends in the SAARC region. Specific areas of cooperation could be identified and a plan of action drawn up for implementation," she said.

On the software front, she said India currently had over 4.5 million personal computers with 3.5 million internet users and 28 million fixed telephones. The projected figures of the growth for the information technology industry for 2008 would be 20 million computers, 100 million internet users and 125 million telephone connections.

Referring to the efforts by the Government to manage the fast growing media sector, she said a Communications Convergence Bill had been introduced in Parliament. "The objective of the Bill is to promote facilitate and develop in an orderly manner, the carriage and content of all forms of communications," she said.

Ms. Swaraj also spoke about the need for regional understanding to observe some accepted norms of programme content for trans-national broadcasting among the SAARC countries. Model guidelines on trans-national satellite broadcasting within the region had been prepared to strike a balance between the need for free flow of information and to prevent cultural invasion.

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`Radio stations under new sectors likely'