With regards to public service broadcasting, the press information bureau from the Government of India announced that the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA) has approved the Central Sector ‘Broadcasting Infrastructure and Network Development (BIND)’ scheme with an outlay of Rs 2,539.61 crore up to 2025-26. Moreover, its statement added that the FM coverage of All India Radio (AIR) will increase to cover more than 80% of the country’s population.
“We will have eight lakh DD Free Dish DTH set-top-boxes (DTBs) will be distributed to people living in remote, tribal, Left Wing Extremism (LWE), border areas and aspirational districts,” the statement highlighted.
As per the statement, the BIND scheme will enable the public broadcaster to undertake a major upgradation of its facilities with better infrastructure which will widen its reach, including in the LWE, border and strategic areas, and provide high-quality content to the viewers. Another major priority area of the scheme is the development of high-quality content for both domestic and international audiences, and ensuring the availability of diverse content to the viewers by upgradation of the capacity of the DTH platform to accommodate more channels. The purchase of OB vans and digital upgradation of DD and AIR Studios to make them HD-ready will also be done as part of the project, it further asserted.
According to the statement, Prasar Bharati, as the public broadcaster of the country, is the most important vehicle of information, education, entertainment and engagement for the people, especially in the remote areas of the country through Doordarshan and All India Radio. At present, the government claimed that Doordarshan operates 36 TV channels including 28 regional channels and All India Radio operates more than 500 broadcasting centres. Additionally, it stated that the scheme will increase coverage of AIR FM transmitters in the country to 66% by geographical area and 80% by population, which will be up from 59% and 68% respectively.
In addition to enhancing the scope of public broadcasting, the project for modernisation and augmentation of broadcast infrastructure also has the potential to generate indirect employment by way of manufacturing and services related to the supply and installation of broadcast equipment, the statement observed. Content generation and content innovation for AIR and DD has the potential of indirect employment for people with varied experiences in different media fields such as the content production sector which includes TV and radio production, transmission and associated media-related services. Further, the project for expansion of the reach of DD Free Dish is expected to generate employment opportunities in the manufacturing of the DD Free Dish DTH Boxes, it highlighted.
Follow us on Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn, Facebook
