Soni calls upon magazine sector to fully utilise its potential

New Delhi, Nov 5 : Minister of Information and Broadcasting Ambika Soni today called upon all the stakeholders in the magazine sector to harness the potential available in the sector so that it can grow with faster pace.

Speaking at a seminar on India Magazine Congress in New Delhi today, she said that the government has liberalized the FDI policy norms and they should tap these opportunities.

The Minister of Information and Broadcasting acknowledged that it is a lengthy proposition to amend the 1867 Act, but she said that the amendments are imperative as the existing provisions of the Act are inadequate to cater to the phenomenal growth of the print media sector in view of advances in technology and the recent liberalization of the government's foreign direct investment.

Soni elaborated that it is the endeavor of her Ministry to ensure more powers to the Press Registrar, RNI in registration/cancellation of titles for checking the non-serious players.

The Minister also said that the preamble of PRB Act would be modified to insert the provisions on FDI including Syndication, Facsimile Edition and Indian Edition of Foreign Publications.

Soni added that in view of the increase in newsprint prices, the Rate Structure Committee report to look into the revision of DAVP advertisement rates would also be finalized soon.

The Minister informed that the process of title verification at RNI has been fully computerized so that the applicants can check the status of application through Internet access to save time.

Soni added that despite global turndown, this sector has performed well.

--ANI