India

India to set up ‘BBC-like’ international news channel to project India’s point of view

With Modi government facing stringent criticism from abroad, the centre is planning to establish a new channel, DD national whose main objective will be to project India’s point of view globally on both global and domestic issues.

The centre is planning to establish a new channel, DD national whose main objective will be to project India’s point of view globally on both global and domestic issues.

Last week, National public broadcaster, Prasar Bharati floated a tender inviting bids from private players to draft a detailed strategic roadmap on getting the channel to work in six to eight months.

The channel is expected to be on the lines of BBC World and aims to be a truly global channel to watch not only by the Indian diaspora, but also a global audience.

“In view of the strategic objective to build a global presence for Doordarshan and to establish an international voice for India, it is envisaged to establish DD International,” the tender stated.

This comes after the Modi government has been receiving stringent criticism from abroad on it’s handling of the COVID-19 pandemic and the recent degradation of India’s rank on several international induces like the recent fall from ‘Free’ to ‘Partly free’ by the US government funded NGO Freedom House, but Prasar Bharati said the tender is “not a knee-jerk reaction” and has “existed for a long time”

In fact, Prakash had headed a committee during his tenure and submitted a detailed report to the Information & Broadcasting ministry, recommended establishing a digital platform that will project India’s answers to “foreign press bias”.

India is not the only country exploring the possibility of an international broadcaster, but both France and Russia are in the race as well and are also in lookout for platforms to voice their views on global developments. 

The I&B ministry clarified this move by saying that India’s emerging global dominance now requires an authoritative global media source from India.

An estimated figure of ₹100 crores has been generated by the centre, but the figure will increase once a detailed planned is laid out.

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