A super regulator for TV, internet, mobile services in offing

A super-regulator for telecom, television and internet could soon become a reality with the National Democratic Alliance government deciding to revive the Communications Convergence Bill that was dumped by the previous UPA government.

Updated on: Sep 7, 2014, 20:27:44 IST

Hindustan Times | By Chetan Chauhan, New Delhi

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A super-regulator for telecom, television and internet could soon become a reality with the National Democratic Alliance government deciding to revive the Communications Convergence Bill that was dumped by the previous UPA government.

Telecom ministry headed by Ravi Shankar Prasad has firmed up a proposal for setting up the cross sector regulator --- the Communications Commission --- having over-riding powers to oversee entire communication framework including those under the Information and Broadcasting Ministry.

The last NDA government headed by Atal Behari Vajpayee had introduced the Communication Convergence Bill in Lok Sabha in 2001 and the Parliamentary Standing Committee submitting its report a year later.

The NDA government took almost two years to convince the I&B ministry about importance of the proposed law and by that time its term got over and the bill lapsed. The UPA government in its 10 years did not pursue the bill seen as the NDA government’s idea.

Government sources said Prasad is keen to push the Communications Convergence Bill after getting Parliamentary nod for National Judicial Appointments Commission. In an interview to DD news, Prasad confirmed that the bill was being considered but added that it was still in infancy stage.

However, the officials said that the broad contours of the Bill have been firmed with the Commission having seven members including the chairperson and an appellate authority. Each member would be a domain expert on areas such as telecom, broadcasting, information technology, law and consumer affairs and finance.

The commission will have well defined powers and procedures for regulatory and licensing functions. It will not regulate in areas where market competition can provide desired results, an official said, adding that its main function would be to stimulate completion for better services and preventing monopolistic operations.

The department of telecom has also proposed mandatory sharing of infrastructure for universal access in unserved and undeserved areas and for public safety. The bill may also make it mandatory for the companies to create infrastructure in strategically important areas. However, the government would continue setting up standard for the sectors to be covered by the proposed law.

The bill, if enacted, would replace two colonial laws --- the Indian Telegraph Act and Indian Wireless Telegraphy Act --- and the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India Act. It also proposed to amend the Cable Television Networks (Regulation) Act and Information Technology Act to provide for setting up of the commission.

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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