Viewers are running to DD from noise on private news channels: A. Surya Prakash

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Vidhi choudhry, FIRST PUBLISHED: FRI, OCT 31 2014. 12 52 AM IST

The Prasar Bharati chairman on autonomy for Doordarshan and turning DD News into a top-class news channel 

New Delhi: A. Surya Prakash, consulting editor at the English daily Pioneer and a fellow at the Vivekananda International Foundation, was appointed the chairman of Prasar Bharati earlier this week. In an interview at the Prasar Bharati office in New Delhi, he spoke of autonomy for Doordarshan and turning DD News into a top-class news channel. Edited excerpts: What is your agenda as chairman of Prasar Bharati, considering Doordarshan seems to be under government control? Since the idea is to have an autonomous corporation, I think everyone should strive towards that whether one is in the government or in Prasar Bharati. As far as my agenda is concerned, whether it's digitization or other new technologies that we need to adopt, we have to get the volumes and look at their commercial viability. These are ideas that we need to pursue. Would you push for autonomy of Prasar Bharati during your term? I was looking at the budget of Prasar Bharati. The budgetary support was Rs.1,400 crore about four-five years ago. In the current financial year, it is Rs.1,950 crore. Out of a budget of approximately Rs.4,000 crore, 50% is coming from the Union of India. I don't think this is a good idea. We need to look at that. These are my preliminary views on the matter. I need to sit with colleagues and ideate on some of these things. I'm very troubled that public money of Rs.2,000 crore is going to Prasar Bharati on an annual basis. Do we really need that kind of budgetary support from the government? The corporation must, therefore, look at its assets. We must objectively bring about an improvement in the commercial viability of the organization. There needs to be a 10-year plan where Prasar Bharati can stand on its own feet. We need to look at some recommendations made by the Sam Pitroda committee or anything that is good and will take us towards strengthening Prasar Bharati as an autonomous institution. 

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