Centre raises FDI cap for radio channels

The Govt has decided to free the groups or holding companies owning FM radio channels from the current 24 per cent FDI cap across sectors. Chetan Chauhan reports.

Updated on: Jun 15, 2008, 02:06:54 IST

Hindustan Times | By Chetan Chauhan, New Delhi

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The government has decided to free the groups or holding companies owning FM radio channels from the current 24 per cent foreign direct investment (FDI) cap across sectors. The companies will have to register the FM channels as separate companies to avail of higher FDI ceilings for other sectors.

The Information and Broadcasting Ministry noted that for the existing FM channels registered as a separate companies the 24 per cent FDI cap would continue. The other policy initiatives are launch of FM phase-III, extending radio services to smaller towns and a new policy to regulate satellite radios.

For example, the Reliance group, which owns Big FM, would be allowed to seek 100 per cent foreign investment for its other business like telecom and entertainment except Big FM. It will have to register Big FM as a separate company, a ministry official told HT.

Under the existing licence regime, the 24 per cent FDI cap is uniformly applicable for all companies of a group, if it owns an FM radio channel. For example, the Reliance group, which owns Big FM, will be allowed to seek higher foreign investment limits for its other businesses only if it registers Big FM as a separate company.

A ministry official said that the decision to allow companies to de-merge their FM radio channels would be notified soon. The decision was taken following representation from the industry that the 24 per cent FDI cap on FM channels was preventing foreign investment in their other business ventures.

The ministry also finalised the FM phase-III policy to be announced soon. Under the policy, FM stations would be auctioned for 50 smaller towns. FM radio stations, at present, are in operation in all the metros and cities with populations of more than 10 million. With phase-III, the I&B ministry expects to increase the number of FM channels in India to 250.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Chetan Chauhan
Chetan Chauhan is the National Affairs Editor looking into all aspects of news and features from across India. A Chevening scholar with over three decades of experience in reporting and news management, Chetan has extensively covered all important aspects of the social sector, political economy, environment and climate change nationally and internationally. He did a journalism course at the Reuters Institute of Journalism in Oxford and Digital Media training at Nanyang Technological University in Singapore. He started as a reporter with The Statesman in 1996 and joined the Hindustan Times in 2000 in the metro bureau covering environment, crime and Delhi politics. He covered hot local news, from the Jessica Lal murder case to the rebellion of Delhi Congress MLAs against then Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit, to the replacement of toxic vehicle fuel with cleaner compressed natural gas (CNG) in the national capital. Some of his stories on air pollution became part of the Supreme Court’s landmark MC Mehta versus Government of India case in the National Capital Region (NCR), forcing the government to take corrective measures. As part of the national political bureau since 2004, he covered important central sectors such as environment, education, social justice, labour, rural development, water resources, renewable energy, agriculture, broadcasting and the Planning Commission for more than a decade producing several exclusive and investigative breaking stories. His specialisation is the environment, having covered at least a dozen United Nations global conferences on climate change, biodiversity and wildlife including climate summits in Paris, Copenhagen and Bali. He also covered India’s two five-year plans ---11th and 12th and reported on drafting and execution of right based laws such as Right to Education, Right to Information and rural job guarantee law, MG-NREGA, now being introduced in new format as VG-RAM-G Act. He has in-depth knowledge of social sector issues. He was one of the first to report on tigers vanishing from Sariska and Panna wildlife reserves in 2004 and 2008, respectively, leading to the setting up of the National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA) and the introduction of stringent penal provisions for poaching. He has written extensively on the rising human-animal conflict in India and the degradation of India’s biodiversity hotspots because of mining and other activities. Since 2004, Chetan has covered Parliament comprehensively and participated in training on the nuanced coverage of Parliament proceedings. He has travelled extensively across India to cover national and provincial elections since 1998, especially in the Hindi heartland states, considered India’s road to power. He writes a regular column for Hindustan Times, Ecostani, on important national politics, economy, Himalayan ecology and environmental issues. His other responsibilities include providing inputs for edits and edit page articles for the publication, apart from managing news flow from across India.Read More

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