All the radio and TV entries produced in India and broadcast or telecast for the first time, in any part of the world, between 1 January 2002 and 31 December 2002, are eligible to compete. Telecast criteria not applicable for documentaries. However all submitted documentaries must have been produced between in calendar year 2002.

Speaking to indiantelevision.com, outdoor advertising specialist company DS Mittle director Brij Mittle, and an active member of the Rapa committee, says: "The Rapa awards are one-of-their kind as they honour excellence in all the languages other than Hindi and English. This year, we have added new categories such as "best ad campaign on radio", "best direction in a telefilm" and "best live coverage of events on TV"."

The languages include:Assamese, Bengali, Dongri, English, Gujarati, Hindi, Kannada,Kashmiri, Konkani, Malayalam, Marathi, Nepali, Oriya, Punjabi,Tamil, Telugu, & Urdu. An entrant can send any number of entries. Every entry should be accompanied with a correctly filled entry form and applicable entree fee. Entrant, sending more than one entry, may remit the total entry fees through a single consolidated cheque/draft or cash.

The other members of the awards organising committee include chairman Danish Khan, co-chairman Shivraj Suvarna, members Vijay Behl, S Swaminathan, Atul Tiwari.