I&B Ministry to allocate Rs 100 cr to community radio stations

The Information and Broadcasting Ministry plans to allocate Rs 100 crore to provide impetus to community radio stations in the 12th Plan. At a conference on community radio in Delhi on 11 February, I&B Minister Manish Tewari said 500 new community radio stations were also proposed to be set up during the Plan (2012-17) period. 

Tewari said the Ministry had identified key benchmarks for the Plan period to prepare a roadmap to provide assistance for community radio stations. About Rs 90 crore has been proposed for providing financial support, while about Rs 10 crore would be spent on training, capacity building and awareness activities, he added. Provisions had also been made for providing grants for research and innovations in the sector. 

There was also a provision for emergency grants for community radio stations, Tewari said, and added that initiatives such as peer review of radio stations, capacity building of radio operators, code of ethics for self-regulation of content etc were being considered to encourage the working of stations. 

Tewari said that efforts were being made to co-ordinate with the Ministry of Communications & IT with regard to better frequency allocation plan for community radio stations. He said the Department of Telecom was likely to announce the spectrum waiver decision shortly.

Source: http://cablequest.org/news/broadband-and-iptv-news/item/1567-i-b-ministry-to-allocate-rs-100-cr-to-community-radio-stations.htmlSource: http://cablequest.org/news/broadband-and-iptv-news/item/1567-i-b-ministry-to-allocate-rs-100-cr-to-community-radio-stations.html