MUMBAI: Cellcast Interactive India and Network18 Media & Investment?s publishing business have got FIPB approval.

Cellcast has got the nod to set-up three Non-news and current affairs Television channels in Hindi, Tamil and TamilTamilu in India while Network 18?s publishing unit has got the permission to undertake additional business of publishing through court approval amalgamation.

Incidentally, the Foreign Investment Promotion Board had last month put the FDI proposal of both companies on hold.

The government has approved 22 FDI proposals worth Rs 5.86 billion.

Earlier Cellcast Asia Holdings Mauritius, which owns the India outfit, had raised $9.5 million from Vertex, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Temasek Holdings, while Canaan Partners had pumped in $5.25 million.

Cellcast Interactive India had launched a social TV channel MyTV, which is ad free but allows brand integration into the content.

The government also cleared Bangla Entertainment?s proposal to amend activities from ?Bengali language television channel? to ?non-news and current affairs television channels?.

Bangla Entertainment operates Channel 8 which was acquired by Sony Pictures Asia in 2009 and was renamed as Sony Aath.

NEW DELHI: Information and Broadcasting Ministry is keeping a check on all the international channels that are downlinking in India.

The ministry sources told indiantelevision.com that the Electronic Media Monitoring Cell (EMMC) is closely monitoring all the 89 channels from abroad which had so far been permitted to downlink in India.

Of these channels, 33 channels are beaming exclusively in English while another 33 are beaming in English, Hindi and one or more regional languages.

While 15 are beaming in English and Hindi, two channels are in Japanese and English, two in French, and one each in Korean-English, German-English, Tamil, and Hindi.

Since the channels are beamed by companies having a registered office in India, they are also covered under the Cable TV Networks (Regulations) Act 1995, the Inter-Ministerial Committee which is empowered to act on complaints as well as suo motu, and the self-regulation mechanisms of the private channels - the Broadcasting Content Complaints Council, and the News Broadcasting Regulatory Authority.