Govt liberalising security clearances to boost M&E industry: I&B Secy

The Government of India was making a conscious effort to move towards less regulation of the media and entertainment industry and was encouraging auto regulation by industry, said Sunil Arora, Secretary, Ministry of Information & Broadcasting (MIB), at a keynote session on ‘Making India a Global M&E Hub’ on day three of FICCI Frames 2016.

He was participating in a dialogue with Uday Shankar, CEO, Star India and veteran filmmaker Ramesh Sippy at the event.

Arora said that the industry had time and again raised the issue of clearances. Hence, the Government was easing and liberalising the process of security clearances to allow greater flexibility for the film fraternity. Speaking about the FM auctions, he said that after the successful auction last year, a new set of rules had been submitted to the Cabinet for the next phase of FM radio auctions.

Underlining the challenges for making India a global M&E hub, the MIB Secretary said that the theatre density of the country left a lot to be desired. There was a need to increase the number of theatres in the country. On the taxation side, he said that the levies would be rationalised automatically once the GST was in place.

Raising the issue of lack of domestic manufacturing of set top boxes, Arora said that the electronics industry needed to play a critical role in stepping up the production of set top boxes in India. Currently, in India less than 10 per cent set top were being manufactured domestically.

He further affirmed that the Government was committed to digitisation and was moving towards it. The National Film Archives of India was working towards safeguarding the heritage of Indian Cinema and was in the process of digitising more than 1,000 films.

The MIB Secretary also informed that the Government was setting up a Film Facilitation Office for enabling the industry and the Government in tandem. To promote the media and entertainment industry in the states, a new award – ‘Most Film Friendly State’ – had been conceived. He added that this year, Gujarat would be felicitated with the newly created award.

Highlighting the initiatives of the Government to promote the media and entertainment industry in the country, Arora said that a Centre of Excellence for Animation, Visual Effects and Gaming was coming up at the Film City in Maharashtra, besides a National Film Museum and Permanent National Photo Gallery.

Participating in the discussion, Uday Shankar, who is also Chairman of the FICCI Entertainment Panel, expressed concerns over the viability of standalone news channels. He also felt that the entry of fringe elements in the news broadcasting field for ‘ancillary facilities’ was affecting credibility.  Meanwhile, Ramesh Sippy expressed concern over low theatre density in India.