New Delhi : In a major sop to the media, the Home Ministry has told the Information and Broadcasting (I&B) Ministry on March 10 that security clearances granted to an entity to run a television channel or a community radio station would remain valid to another proposal in the same sector – in short saying no additional security clearance is needed to launch another TV channel by an entity already running one.
“The security clearance conveyed to an entity in one proposal shall remain valid other proposals (within the same sector) in the following sectors of Ministry of I&B – (i) community radio stations, (ii) uplinking/downlinking of TV channels, (iii) Multi-System operator, (iv) Teleport. The security clearance granted in one sector of the Ministry of I&B is not valid for other sector.
For example, security clearance granted to the company to running community radio stations is not automatically valid for uplinking/downlinking of channel or vice-versa,” the Home Ministry has said in an official memorandum to I&B Secretary Bimal Julka on 10th March. The memorandum that proposals for security clearance for FDI proposals shall be governed by the FDI guidelines of 2014 issued by DIPP.
There are close to 300 companies running over 800 television channels across India. The government has been attempting to simplify procedures for security clearances in these sectors.
A Home Ministry official said they have even suggested to the I&B Ministry to explore if the requirement of security clearance for Multi-System Operator – that is cable operators and DTH – can be totally dispensed with.
“The template followed in the present sectors in I&B is planned to be extended to all other sectors as well by the Home Ministry,” an official said.
