Inter-ministerial committee to oversee FDI in print media

NEW DELHI: An inter-ministerial committee is proposed to be set up to examine the nature and categorisation of non-news and non-current affairs publications applying for foreign direct investment (FDI) in the country.
This is being done to ensure proper classification of the publications particularly since the government has allowed 74 per cent FDI in the sector and only 26 per cent in news and current affairs in print media, Information and Broadcasting Ministry sources told PTI.
It is proposed that the committee, to be chaired by joint information & broadcasting secretary, would have representatives from the Home and Finance ministries, media and specialists.
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 proposals of the inter-ministerial meeting to discuss the FDI guidelines for the non-news print media, which includes medical and technical journals, are likely to be cleared by the government soon, they said.
The Ministry is hopeful of putting in place the FDI guidelines for news and non-news print media before the Winter Session of Parliament.
The sources said purely skilled magazines will be easier to give approval while "grey" areas like political journals would have to be examined.
They said in case of a publishing house wanting to bring out an Indian edition of a non-news, non-current affairs publication, approval would 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).