State information ministers to discuss draft I&B Bill on Dec 5

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Jamshedpur: The I&B ministry has called a meeting of information ministers of all states on December 5 to discuss the draft information & broadcasting bill.

"It (the draft bill) will be discussed there too, and we will see what decision is being taken," said Union I&B minister Ambika Soni. She is in the city to campaign for Congress candidates for the second phase of assembly elections scheduled for November 30.

Soni said the Broadcast Regulatory Authority of India Bill has been set aside and an altogether new exercise has been commenced by her ministry as the bill was objected to.

"We have formed a 'task force' involving representatives of self-regulatory bodies and editors' associations, and the secretary and additional secretary of my ministry," said Soni, adding that the task force is hoping to come to a final decision at an early date.

"Around five to six rounds of discussions have already taken place; and we have called a meeting on December 5 of information ministers of all states to discuss the issue," she said.

Asked by when IPTV (internet protocol television) would become a reality in the country, the minister said though BSNL had introduced IPTV (internet protocol television), its application was not much widespread yet as internet broadband bandwidth had to be made available.

"I want to see, keeping the commercial interests of private players in mind, that people have multiple choices as also acceptable technology is being made available to them at a low cost," said the minister.

The I&B minister said cabinet's recently approved new digital television signal delivery platform, 'Head-end In the Sky (HITS)', to be fitted on satellites would enable the cable operator/MSOs convert analog signals into digital ones at a low capital investment of Rs 2-3 lakh, compared with Rs 2 to 3 crore earlier.