FM poised for major growth, says President Patil

Indiantelevision.com Team (25 February 2008 6:30 pm) NEW DELHI:

The number of FM channels in the country is expected to go up to 266 from the present 152, President Pratibha Devisingh Patil said. In her address to the joint sitting of the two houses of the Parliament on the opening day of the Budget session, President Patil also said that community radio has been given a major boost through a new policy.In her first address from the Central Hall since she became the First Citizen last year, she said the Indian entertainment and media industry - including sectors like print, television, radio, film and entertainment - is witnessing a huge growth, conducing to numerous employment opportunities.She said that the government was focusing on strengthening All India Radio and Doordarshan services in Jammu and Kashmir and the north-east regions. The Urdu channel of Doordarshan had already started beaming round-the-clock.Noting that the Indian telecom sector had emerged as the fastest growing in the world with the addition of over seven million subscribers per month, Patil said that a scheme had been launched to provide support for setting up and managing telecom infrastructure in rural areas to affordably and quickly expand mobile telecom services. Identifying growth of electronics and IT hardware manufacturing as a thrust area, a special scheme had been announced to encourage semiconductor fabrication and other micro and nano technology manufacturing industries. The National e-Governance Plan, to make government transparent and citizen-friendly, was at an advanced stage of implementation all over the country. Use of information technology in about 13,000 district and subordinate courts across the country has been initiated. An integrated national knowledge network to provide gigabit broadband connectivity was being set up to connect all institutions of higher learning and research in the country. From 2005 till the end of 2007, the target for telephone connectivity to all villages had almost been met, with only 14,000 villages remaining to be connected as of December 2007. Rural tele-density had improved dramaticallyReferring to the northeast, Patil said broadband and wireless connectivity was being further enhanced to improve communications networks.Referring to the Indian space programme, she said this had enabled the nation to extend tele-medicine, tele-education, tele-communications and other services both at home and abroad. A new Indian Institute of Space Technology has been established to build upon these successes. India's first unmanned lunar mission "Chandrayan-I" is scheduled for launch later this year.

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