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NEW
DELHI: The role of the pubcaster is coming under review to
give it a push in the wake of growth of private satellite
television channels and the government's design to make it
financially self-running. The Information and Broadcasting
(I&B) Ministry has constituted a seven-member expert committee
to review the institutional framework of public broadcaster
Prasar Bharati, including its relationship with the government.
Sam
Pitroda, advisor to the Prime Minister on Public Information
Infrastructure and Innovations, is the chairman of the expert
committee.
The
committee will have Prasar Bharati CEO Jawhar Sircar as its
convener. It will also examine the continuing role of the
pubcaster and measures needed to ensure technical upgradation
of the organisation.
The
timing of the setting up of the committee coincides with the
recent announcements of fresh financial packages to the pubcaster,
and the government undertaking to pay salaries of employees
who had been employed with the pubcaster as on 5 October 2007.
The
committee will review the status of implementation of the
recommendations made by various committees that have undertaken
study of Prasar Bharati, namely, the Sengupta committee, the
Bakshi Committee and the Narayanamurthy committee and suggest
a road map for enhancing the reach and potential of the public
broadcaster.
It
can suggest measures to sustain, strengthen and amplify Prasar
Bharati`s role as a public broadcaster with special reference
to its relationship with government in the emerging context.
It
will also suggest measures to digitise the archival material
in the possession of Doordarshan (DD) and All India Radio
(AIR) including material from independence movement era, and
develop enabling infrastructure, in the form of data digitalisation
systems, data centers and networks, etc.
The
committee will suggest ways of using the new media to deliver
digital content - both in broadcast mode (DTH) and in a demand-based
mode (Free on social media like You-Tube, and on payment through
IPTV).
It
will work out a strategy for creating a network of domestic
and overseas business partners for ensuring wider reach to
a worldwide audience including creating an exclusive overseas
service.
The
members of the committee are retired IAS officer Asha Swaroop,
who had earlier served as secretary in the I&B Ministry,
B K Gairola (Mission Director e-Governance), Shekhar Kapur
(a member of the National Innovation Council), Professor M
P Gupta of IIT Delhi; and Jitendra Shankar Mathur, additional
secretary and nominated member on the Prasar Bharati Board.
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