It is the ultimate responsibility of the public broadcaster to educate and inform the public about the developmental efforts and policies of the government, the minister said. "This requires proper selection of the content for programmes which are broadcast by DD and AIR," she added. Also, in order to cover all parts of India, Prasar Bharati needs to work out a strategy which is cost-effective, she said.

All this in the scenario of the entertainment sector which is expected to grow from Rs 15,000 crore now to over Rs 60,000 crore by the year 2005. Emphasising on the right selection of content, the minister said: "The public broadcaster must espouse values which are not only industrial or commercial but which aim for the benefit of society at large. This is the basis of difference between private and public broadcasting." Emphasising that Prasar Bharati has a pool of talented programming and engineering personnel, Ms Swaraj said the public broadcaster must use its studios and personnel in a more meaningful way. The minister said that this was the era of broadcast engineers and that the government must look at an incentive package for them. "I foresee good days for the broadcasting sector.

But there will be challenges along with opportunities," Ms Swaraj said. These are both the best and the worst days for the engineering personnel in the sector, she said. Best because they are living in one of the best times of new and developing technology. And worst, because if the people in this sector stop learning, they'll quickly become obsolete and redundant, she said. Ms Swaraj also used the opportunity to announce the launch of four digital transmitters for Doordarshan. At present the transmitters have been launched on an experimental basis. However, the DD digital channels, with the help of these transmitters, will be operational by the end of this year, Ms Sushma said. She also said that convergence of technologies should benefit the common man. Also addressing the inaugural session of the conference were Minister of State for Information and Broadcasting Ramesh Bais; I&B Secretary Pawan Chopra; Vice Chancellor of Guru Gobind Singh Indraprastha University KK Agarwal; and BES (India) president RKGupta. Prof KK Agarwal was conferred the honorary fellowship of BES on the first day of the conference.