FDI in print guidelines to be in place before Session

NEW DELHI: Government hopes to put in place guidelines for FDI in news and current affairs print media and other publications before the Winter Session of Parliament beginning mid-November.
Four months after the Union Cabinet gave its nod to allow FDI in the sector, the Government is in the process of finalising guidelines separately for current affairs print media and non-news publications, which includes medical and technical journals.
Information and Broadcasting Ministry sources say there is no question of increasing the 26 per cent in FDI in the news sector, a controversial issue which had met with strong opposition from several political parties and a section of the media when the Union Cabinet cleared it in June.
Finalising the guidelines for FDI in this sector may take longer because of "more safeguards and complications", the sources said.
An inter-ministerial Committee is proposed to be set up to examine the nature and categorisation of non-news and non-current affairs publications, in which the FDI cap is 74 per cent against 26 per cent in the news sector.
It is proposed that the Committee, to be chaired by Joint Information and Broadcasting, Secretary, would have representatives from the Home and Finance Ministries, media and specialists. MORE PTI AS GSN J
An undertaking will also be taken from the publisher that the nature of the magazine will not be changed and any violation of this will be viewed seriously by the Government, the sources said.
The approval will be given to publications and not to a group, since the FDI quantum varies in news and current affairs and other publications.
The Committee will also take a view on which publications are to be given permission though purely skilled magazines will be easier to get approval while "grey" areas like political journals would have to be examined.
In case of a publishing house wanting to bring out an Indian edition of a non-news, non-current affairs publication, approval is likely to be granted directly.
However, if a Foreign Institutional Investor (FII) is picking up stake in an Indian venture for such a publication to fund its Indian edition, such applications would be given a No Objection Certificate (NOC) and sent to RBI for clearance.
In the third scenario, if a known foreign partner wants to bring in FDI, such cases will get an NOC and then be referred to Foreign Investment Promotion Board (FIPB).