PRASAR BHARATI (INDIA’S PUBLIC SERVICE BROADCASTER) ANNUAL REPORT 2012-13 Prasar Bharati –India’s Public Service Broadcaster 03-13 All India Radio 14-66 Doordarshan 67-120 Annual Plans 121-140 All India Radio 121-135 Doordarshan 136-140 Audited Annual Accounts 141-163 Prasar Bharati – The Corporation INTRODUCTION Prasar Bharati being the only public service broadcaster in the country reaching remote parts of the country ensures that it carries forward the social responsibility of informing, educating and entertaining the people of India. It has the widest network through both Radio and TV, with All India Radio and Doordarshan as its constituents. Prasar Bharati came into being on November 23, 1997 by an Act of the Parliament. The Act gave Prasar Bharati the mandate to organize and conduct public broadcasting services to inform, educate and entertain the public while ensuring balanced development of broadcasting in the country. Prasar Bharati has a phenomenal reach, covering even the remote and far-flung areas of the country. To do this, it maintains one of the largest broadcasting infrastructure networks in the world. It has about 1968 terrestrial transmitters for 450 TV and Radio stations of Doordarshan and All India Radio as well as 40 Earth Stations. OBJECTIVES As per the Prasar Bharati Act, 1990, the major objectives of the Prasar Bharati are as follows: To uphold the unity and integrity of the country and the values enshrined in the Constitution; To promote national integration; To safeguard citizens’ rights to be informed on all matters of public interest by presenting a fair and balanced flow of information; To pay special attention to the fields of education and spread of literacy, agriculture, rural development, environment, health and family welfare and science and technology; To create awareness about women’s issues and take special steps to protect the interests of children, senior citizens and other vulnerable sections of the society; 3 Prasar Bharati To provide adequate coverage to diverse cultures, sports and games and youth affairs; To promote social justice, safeguarding the rights of working classes, minorities and tribal communities. To promote research and expand broadcasting facilities and developments in broadcast technology. THE PRASAR BHARATI BOARD Prasar Bharati is governed by the Prasar Bharati Board to ensure that the public service objectives are met. The Board is headed by the Chairman and includes: an Executive Member, Member (Personnel), Member (Finance), six part-time Members, one representative of the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting (MIB) and the Director-Generals of All India Radio and Doordarshan as ex-officio Members of the Board. The tenure of Chairman is three years subject to the maximum age limit of 70 years, while the Executive Member has a tenure of five years (subject to an age limit of 65 years). The Members (Finance) and (Personnel) are full-time members, with a six-year tenure each (subject to an age limit of 62 years). The Prasar Bharati Board meets at least six times in a year. The Board functions at the apex level, ensuring formulation and implementation of the policies as per the mandate in the Prasar Bharati Act, 1990. The Executive Member functions as the Chief Executive Officer (CEO). Officers working in the Prasar Bharati Secretariat assist the CEO, Members (Personnel) and (Finance) in integrating actions, operations, plans and policy implementation as well as looking after the budget, accounts and general financial matters. PRASAR BHARATI- PUBLIC SERVICE BROADCASTER The goal of the Public Service Broadcasting (PSB) is to meet community needs which exist beyond traditional geographic and institutional boundaries. Prasar Bharati has achieved this by making sure that both All India Radio (AIR) and Doordarshan (DD) provide the widest coverage in the country. Prasar Bharati has ensured that this medium has lived up to its potential to inform, educate and entertain people. It has also ensured that this immense social responsibility, mandated by the Act, is carried out by using the potential of its network to reach the people in every corner of the country. 4 Annual Report 2012-13 Prasar Bharati The mandate of Prasar Bharati is non-commercial in spirit. The goal of public service broadcasting the world over is to make essential information available at everyone’s doorstep. It has to be wide ranging in its appeal, reliable, entertaining, instructive and informative, serving only one master, ‘its public’. And true to this spirit, both Doordarshan and All India Radio, have been engaged in multifarious activities, to ensure that their role as public broadcasters is fulfilled. The service provided by Prasar Bharati touches the lives of millions each day, providing experiences of the highest quality in cultural and performing arts, information and public affairs documentaries and educational programming. Prasar Bharati engages all communities through thought-provoking programmes and outreach projects. It channelizes information and ideas to help communities improve socially, culturally and economically. In today’s rapidly changing world, the aim of Prasar Bharati is to keep the best of what it does and re-invent the rest. The future promises to be exciting as well as challenging. It is ensuring that it keeps abreast with the digital age by using new technologies to provide better service and programmes to an even wider and more diverse population. Akashvani and Doordarshan’s contributions to the forging of a common Indian identity of ‘one nation, one memory’have been considerable. Both of them have played a critical role in the cultural unification of the country with their pan-Indian coverage. Their contribution to public service can be visualized from varied content woven around catchy melodies, lyrical imagery and sentimental memories which has developed a unique homogenisation across the country. AIR and Doordarshan have succeeded in serving diverse linguistic groups in their own languages and dialects, unmatched by any other public service broadcaster in the world. 5 Annual Report 2012-13 Prasar Bharati COMPOSITION OF PRASAR BHARATI BOARD 2012-13 CHAIRPERSON – Smt. Mrinal Pande CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER – Shri Jawhar Sircar Whole Time Members Member (Personnel) – Brig. (Retd.) V.A.M. Hussain Member (Finance) – Shri A.K. Jain One Nominated Member by Ministry of I&B Shri Rajiv Takru, Addl. Secy. (w.e.f. 1st April, 2012) Shri R.K. Singh, Joint Secy. (w.e.f. 25th September, 2012) Shri J.S. Mathur, Addl. Secy. (w.e.f. 14th November, 2012) Shri C. Viswanath, Addl. Secy. (w.e.f. 21st March, 2013) Six Part-Time Members Dr. Sunil Kapoor Shri Suman Dubey Shri Muzaffar Ali Ms. Prema Cariappa Shri Vikram Kaushik Prof. S.K. Barua Two Ex-Officio Members Shri L.D. Mandloi, DG, AIR Shri Tripurari Sharan, DG, DD ORGANISATION CHART PRASAR BHARATI BOARD CEO Member (P) Member (F) Prasar Bharati Secretariat DG, AIR DG, DD DG, NSD E -in -C DG, News E -in -C News Prog Admin/ Engg News Prog Admin/ Engg Fin. Fin. 6 Annual Report 2012-13 Prasar Bharati PROFILE OF AIR, DD NETWORK AND COVERAGE DDKs/ Stations 67 376 Satellite Channels (DTH) Transmitters DD 21 +Pvt. 38 59 21 546 DD Channels 1415 33 µµ 34 32 Terrestrial Coverage (i) TV National(ii) TV News 92 % 81 % 49 % 26 % (iii) All India Radio (MW + FM) µµ µµ 99.19 % 91.87 % (iv) FM Radio only DSNGs OB Vans/ EFP Vans 41.63 % 29.42 % Doordarshan All India Radio % Population wise % Area wise 7 Annual Report 2012-13 Prasar Bharati PRASAR BHARATI HUMAN RESOURCES (2012-13) CCW Sanconed NEWS 1492 Sanconed 209 In Posion Vacant Posts 1079 In Posion 10616 125 ENGINEERING Vacant Posts Vacant Posts Sanconed 413 26129 Sanconed 84 In Posion 15513 5974 In Posion 4273 ADMIN Vacant Posts 1701 Sanconed 11558 In Posion 6829 AIR STAFF Vacant Posts 4729 Admin Programme Engineering News CCW Vacant Posts 3689 PROGRAMME Sanconed In Posion 6896 3207 NEWS Sanconed 189 In Posion 97 ADMIN Total Vacant Posts Vacant Posts Sanconed 6186 92 5644 Sanconed 4484 21760 In Posion 15574 Vacant Posts 1160 DD STAFF PROGRAMME Sanconed 3764 In Posion 2434 Grand Vacant Posts Total Vacant Posts 1330 PRASAT BHARATI 16802 ENGINEERING Admin In Posion Sanconed Programme Sanconed 8559 12163 Engineering Vacant Posts News 47889 In Posion 3604 31087 8 Annual Report 2012-13 Prasar Bharati PRASAR BHARATI INITIATIVES DURING THE YEAR 2012-13 The role of Prasar Bharati being a national broadcaster, there is a constant and continuous emphasis on reaching the remote parts of the country including tribal belts, border areas and other areas, which are difficult to access in the normal course. Thus, revenue generation by Prasar Bharati cannot, in the normal sense, be comparable with other private channels, whose primary objective remains profit making, without any of the responsibilities of public service broadcasting, mandated to Prasar Bharati. The constant endeavour to increase its reach by creating additional infrastructure, both terrestrial and satellite, to reach remote, tribal belts and border areas, is part of Prasar Bharati’s expenditure, which cannot be related directly to earning revenue and hence, cost effectiveness. 9 Annual Report 2012-13 Prasar Bharati FINANCIAL CONSTRAINTS Prasar Bharati is working under heavy financial constraints and has remained a loss making unit for the State, due to its social mandate. However, financial restructuring of Prasar Bharati has been under consideration of the Government since 2006 through a Group of Ministers (GoM). Some recent initiatives to put Prasar Bharati back on the path of financial recovery include income tax exemption, waiver of loan in perpetuity (Rs. 4258 crore) , interest waiver (Rs. 3278 crores), waiver of capital loan including loan for CWG 2010 (Rs. 1841 crores) and interest thereon (Rs. 1200 crores), penal interest (Rs. 144 crores) and converting loan into grant-in-aid, waiver of accumulated arrears of space segments and spectrum charges accrued up to the fiscal 2011 (Rs.