Prasar Bharati

Prasar Bharati, is India's public broadcaster, headquartered in New Delhi. It is a statutory autonomous body set up by an Act of Parliament and comprises the Doordarshan Television Network and All India Radio, which were earlier media units of the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting. The Parliament of India passed the Prasar Bharati Act to grant this autonomy in 1990, but it was not enacted until 15 September 1997.[2][3]

Prasar Bharati
Agency overview
Formed23 November 1997 (1997-11-23)
JurisdictionMinistry of Information and Broadcasting, Government of India
HeadquartersNew Delhi, India
Agency executives
  • Shri. Shashi Shekhar Vempati[1], CEO
Child agencies
Websitewww.prasarbharati.gov.in

The Prasar Bharati board chairperson's position remains vacant since Dr A. Surya Prakash finished his second term in February 2020.[4] He had succeeded Dr Mrinal Pande.[5] Shashi Shekhar Vempati is the CEO of Prasar Bharati (he succeeded Jawhar Sircar who was the CEO until November 2016).[6]

Reuters Institute Digital News Report 2021 revealed that DD News and All India Radio are the most trusted News brands in India.[7]

Act

The Prasar Bharati Act provides for the establishment of a Broadcasting Corporation, to be known as Prasar Bharati, and define its composition, functions, and powers.[8] The Act grants autonomy to All India Radio and to Doordarshan, both of which were previously under government control.[8] The Act received the assent of the President of India on 12 September 1990[2] after being unanimously passed by Parliament. It was finally implemented in November 1997. By the Prasar Bharati Act, all property, assets, debts, liabilities, payments of money due, as well as all suits and legal proceedings involving Akashvani (All India Radio) and Doordarshan were transferred to Prasar Bharati.

Board

The Prasar Bharati Act vests the general superintendence, direction, and management of affairs of the Corporation in the Prasar Bharati Board which may exercise all such powers and do all such acts and things as may be exercised or done by the Corporation.[8]

The Prasar Bharati Board consists of:

  • Chairman
  • One Executive Member
  • One Member (Finance)
  • One Member (Personnel)
  • Six Part-time Members
  • Director-General (Akashvani), ex officio
  • Director-General (Doordarshan), ex officio
  • One representative of the Union Ministry of Information and Broadcasting (India), to be nominated by that Ministry and
  • Two representatives of the employees, of whom one shall be elected by the engineering staff from amongst themselves and one shall be elected by the other employee from amongst themselves.

The President of India appoints the Chairman and the other Members, except the ex officio members, nominated member and the elected members. Board meetings must be held at least once in every three months each year. The actress Kajol has been named as part-time member for five years, until November 2021.[9]

Current members of Prasar Bharati Board
  • Chairman — Vacant[10]
  • Chief Executive Officer — Shashi Shekhar Vempati[11]
  • Member (Personnel) — Vacant[12]
  • Member (Finance) — Vacant[13]

Part-time members
  • Additional Secretary and Representative of Ministry of Information & Broadcasting — Ms. Neerja Sekhar[14]
  • Ex Officio members — Mayank Agarwal, DG, DD News,[15] and NV Reddy, Pr DG, NSD, All India Radio
  • Part-time member : Kajol, Shaina NC, Salim Merchant, Alok Agrawal, Ashok Kumar Tandon, Sanjay Gupta[16]

Transformations and Initiatives

Over last 5 years, Prasar Bharati’s TV (DD) and Radio (AIR) network has undergone major transformations in the field of technology, content and broadcasting.

IT-enabled operations –

  • 100% implementation of e-Office at 577 offices across Prasar Bharati network.[17] This has drastically reduced average time taken to clear files. This has also saved organisation’s expenditure on paper by 45% between August 2019 and June 2021.
  • To bring transparency, Talent Acquisition and content acquisition processes have been made online.[18]
  • Dashboard has been created to monitor various projects.
  • Procurements and Billing System for DD & AIR are now IT-based.
  • Independent HR Management software Tool has been created.


DD India – Doordarshan’s International channel DD India is available in 37 countries.[19] It is now also available on Hotstar and iTV platforms in United States.

NewsOnAir App – The App has more than 2 Million downloads. It offers more than 270 Radio & TV Live-streams.[20]

DD FreeDish – DD Free Dish is the largest DTH operator in the country with reach to more than 40 Million Households.[21] The platform has 116 TV channels, including 50+ dedicated Educational channels. In 2020-21, it generated revenue of more than Rs 700 Crore.

Prasar Bharati News Services – PBNS has established itself as the digital news wing of Prasar Bharati through its Telegram Channel & Twitter handle.[22] Its Twitter handle has 100K+ followers and Telegram channel has 15K+ subscribers. PBNS has created a digital news gathering platform called NDMS which is being used by all stringers & part time Correspondents of DD and AIR across India.

Innovative efforts in Audience research – Prasar Bharati’s Audience Research team releases weekly NewsOnAir Radio Live-stream Rankings (Global & Domestic).[23]

Inclusive Coverage – Sign Language commentary for special events, including big sporting events[24] and Mann Ki Baat.

Radio – TV Integration - Visual Radio initiatives like visual versions of Mann Ki Baat,[25] Rangoli and TV Visual Commentary on YouTube.

International brand of Doordarshan - Expressions of Interest for blue print to make an international brand of Doordarshan being reviewed.[26]

Cloud Based Media Operations to be implemented for Broadcasting and Archival Media[27]

5G Broadcast technology pilot underway with IIT Kanpur[28]


Controversies

In 2010, as many as 24 candidates out of the 30 selected for the posts of journalists in Doordarshan News were alleged to have been appointed on the basis of political considerations.[29] For example, one of the successful candidates was closely related to a former Congress Minister of State for Information and Broadcasting, another successful candidate was the daughter of a sitting Congress Union minister, and a third was a close relative of Union Commerce Minister Anand Sharma.[30][31]

The number of applicants called for interview was increased from 25 to 35 to accommodate the daughter of a Congress politician, who held the 33rd rank, and would have otherwise been eliminated at the cut-off stage. Another successful candidate, Anika Kalra Kalha, was not even called for an audition and reporting skills test, and the remark in the relevant columns read “Did not qualify for this stage”. Similarly, the weightage given to interviews was arbitrarily increased two days before they were held.[30]

In 2014, over allegations of DD editing out portions of interview of the then BJP’s PM candidate Narendra Modi, then Prasar Bharati CEO Jawhar Sircar had admitted that some parts of the interview "were apparently edited" and pointed a finger at then I&B Minister Manish Tewari for failing to grant the "operational autonomy" that the public broadcaster had been seeking for years.[32]

In August 2017, then Tripura CM Manik Sarkar alleged that Doordarshan and All India Radio had refused to broadcast his Independence Day speech unless he reworked it.[33]

In September 2017, following instructions from the ministry of information and broadcasting, Doordarshan had put on hold prime time slots auctioned to Ekta Kapoor’s Balaji Telefilms and Saaibaba Telefilms.[34]

Fake offer/appointment letters for jobs at Prasar Bharati’s DD Kisan channel were given by scamsters on fake letter heads of DD Kisan.[35]

In September 2017, following a complaint of alleged abuse of dominance with regard to infrastructural facilities for FM radio broadcasting, Competition Commission ordered a fresh investigation against Prasar Bharati.[36]

In March 2018, then Prasar Bharati Chairman Dr A Surya Prakash said that the I&B Ministry had been refusing funds to Prasar Bharati since December 2017 and that the funds for the month of January and February were drawn from the broadcaster’s contingency funds to pay its employees’ salaries.[37]

In April 2019, then Congress President Rahul Gandhi’s office did not respond to Prasar Bharati CEO’s request for Gandhi’s interview by DD News. Earlier that month, Congress had submitted a memorandum to the Election Commission with allegations of bias in the political coverage by the public broadcaster.[38]

In October 2019, Prasar Bharati suspended a Chennai Doordarshan Kendra[39] official citing "disciplinary proceedings". According to media reports, Doordarshan Kendra assistant director R Vasumathi had allegedly blocked the telecast of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's speech at IIT Madras.

In March 2020, Prasar Bharati CEO Shashi Shekhar Vempati turned down BBC[40] invite for an awards function, alleging that the BBC did “one-sided” reporting on Delhi violence in February 2020. In his letter to BBC Director General, Vempati said, “I must respectfully decline the invitation in view of the recent coverage of the BBC of certain incidents of violence in Delhi.”

References
  1. "Who is Shashi Shekhar Vempati? All you need to know about the newly appointed Prasar Bharati CEO". Retrieved 2017-06-03.
  2. "Prasar Bharati Act, 1990". Retrieved 2012-03-21.
  3. https://prasarbharati.gov.in/
  4. "A Surya Prakash demits Prasar Bharati chairman's office after two terms". The Economic Times. Retrieved 2020-08-31.
  5. "Prasar Bharati Board". Retrieved 2012-03-21.
  6. "Shashi Shekhar Vempati to take charge as Prasar Bharati CEO". livemint. Retrieved 3 June 2017.
  7. "Digital News Report 2021". reutersinstitute.
  8. "The Prasar Bharati (Broadcasting Corporation of India) Act, 1990". Archived from the original on 2012-03-21. Retrieved 2012-03-21.
  9. "Kajol Named Part-Time Member Of Prasar Bharati Board". Associated Press. July 15, 2016.
  10. "A Surya Prakash demits Prasar Bharati chairman's office after two terms". economictimes. Retrieved 8 February 2021.
  11. "Who is Shashi Shekhar Vempati? All you need to know about the newly appointed Prasar Bharati CEO". Retrieved 2017-06-03.
  12. "13 member board of Prasar Bharati stares at record 9 vacancies". timesofindia. Retrieved 7 February 2020.
  13. "Prasar Bharti searching for Member (Finance)". indianmandarins. Retrieved 19 February 2021.
  14. "Ms Neerja Sekhar appointed as Additional Secretary of I&B". whispersinthecorridors. Retrieved 2 November 2021.
  15. "Mayank Agrawal get additional charges of DG DD". whispersinthecorridors. Retrieved 2 November 2021.
  16. "Prasar Bharati gets 5 new board members". PTI. Retrieved 7 July 2021.
  17. "Prasar Bharati goes paperless: 577 Centers and 22,348 employees of DD, AIR adopt 100% e-Office operations; cut down paper expenditure by 45%". zeebiz. Retrieved 24 June 2021.
  18. "Prasar Bharati launches content acquisition portal". indiantelevision. Retrieved 14 October 2021.
  19. "For India's point of view' — Modi govt to launch BBC World-like DD International channel". theprint. Retrieved 19 May 2021.
  20. "All these audiovisual contents on AIR and DD will be available on Prasar Bharati's NewsOnAir App". latestly. Retrieved 2 November 2021.
  21. "DTH players miffed as broadcasters offer pay channels for free on DD freedish". livemint. Retrieved 12 September 2021.
  22. "PTI coverage not in national interest, will review ties: Prasar Bharati". indianexpress. Retrieved 28 June 2020.
  23. "NewsOnAir Radio Live-stream India Rankings". orissadiary. Retrieved 8 October 2021.
  24. "AIR, DD Sports to live stream & broadcast India vs Sri Lanka 2nd ODI live broadcast & commentary for free". insidesport. Retrieved 20 July 2021.
  25. "PMO looking to revamp Modi's Mann Ki Baat to make it more interactive". theprint. Retrieved 6 November 2018.
  26. "Centre to set up 'BBC-like' channel to push India view". indianexpress. Retrieved 20 May 2021.
  27. "Prasar Bharati looks at BBC model for makeover". hindustantimes. Retrieved 2 April 2021.
  28. "Prasar Bharati, IIT-K to collaborate on NextGen broadcasting tech". hindustantimes. Retrieved 19 July 2021.
  29. Garg, Abhinav (14 September 2010). "CAT quashes DD selection of minister's kin". The Times of India. Archived from the original on 3 November 2012. Retrieved 14 September 2010.
  30. Jebaraj, Priscilla (September 14, 2010). "Doordarshan appointments quashed". the Hindu. New Delhi. Retrieved 19 January 2015.
  31. "Quashing of 25 Doordarshan employees' appointment stayed". Zee. March 7, 2011. Retrieved 19 January 2015.
  32. "Prasar Bharati CEO admits editing, points to Tewari". indiatoday. Retrieved 5 May 2014.
  33. "Censoring the Tripura CM: How Prasar Bharati became a propaganda tool for the Modi government". scroll. Retrieved 18 August 2017.
  34. "Doordarshan has put on hold the prime time slots auctioned to Ektaa Kapoor-managed Balaji Telefilms and Saaibaba". indiantelevision. Retrieved 20 September 2017.
  35. "डीडी किसान चैनल में 'किसान पत्रकार' बनाने के नाम पर चल रहा है गोरखधंधा". inkhabar. Retrieved 2 August 2017.
  36. "Competition Commission Orders Fresh Probe Against Prasar Bharti". news18. Retrieved 7 September 2017.
  37. "Mystery deepens as Prasar Bharati CEO Shashi Shekhar Vempati denies rumours". exchange4media. Retrieved 5 March 2018.
  38. "Doordarshan seeks Rahul Gandhi interview amid allegations of bias". economictimes. Retrieved 11 April 2019.
  39. "Chennai Doordarshan official suspended as channel skips PM Modi's IIT speech". indiatoday. Retrieved 2 October 2019.
  40. "Prasar Bharati CEO declines BBC invite". thehindu. Retrieved 7 March 2020.

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