Prasar Bharati revamp report by year-end

Government today said it had extended until december 31, the time for submission of a report suggesting a viable capital and financial restructuring plan for public broadcaster Prasar Bharti.

"Since the collection, collation and compilation of the requisite data from various fields is likely to take time, the term of the committee has been extended for a further period of three months with effect from October 1, 2005," minister for information and broadcasting P R Dasmunshi said in a written reply in the Lok Sabha.

A committee was constituted in March, 2005 to recommend ways to strengthen the functioning of Prasar Bharti and improve its financial condition.

On revenues earned by AIR and Doordarshan, Dasmunshi said the earnings of AIR has been increasing constantly from Rs 132.25 crore in 2002-03 to Rs 156.39 crore in 2004-05 and Doordarshan's revenues too jumped from Rs 553.81 crore in 2002-03 to Rs 665.27 crore in 2004-05.

No hive off of OVL

Government today ruled out hiving off ONGC Videsh Ltd, the overseas arm of state-owned Oil and Natural Gas Corporation, from the parent company. When asked whether the goverment was planning to take away OVL from ONGC, Petroleum Minister Mani Shankar Aiyar replied in the negative.

In a written reply in the Lok Sabha, Aiyar also said, "however, government is considering various measures to strengthen public sector oil companies, including OVL, in their overseas activities in respect of their human, financial, technological and knowledge-base capabilities."

Replying to another query, Aiyar said OVL has bagged an E&p Plock in Libya. The E&P sharing agreement of block 81-1 in the Ghadames basin measuring 1809 square km is likely to be signed this month. An IOC-oil consortium has also bagged one block in Libya.

FM radio expansion

Government has invited pre-qualification bids from Indian companies to set up 338 radio stations in 91 cities, including Srinagar and Jammu, as part its policy to expand FM radio services in the country. Replying to a question in the Lok Sabha, Information and Broadcasting Minister P R Dasmunshi said a notification for private FM radio broadcasting phase II policy was issued in September, 2005 and the time-table for financial bidding scheduled for January/February, 2006 has also been notified.

"The qualified companies would be eligible to participate in the financial bidding process. The successful bidders, after obtaining letter of intent, would need to complete various formalities within a maximum period of 9 months," he said in a written reply.

Following this the bidders would enter into an agreement, 'grant of permission agreement' with the government. The parties would then be required to operationalise the station within a year and latest by 18 months from the date of agreement, he said.

No IA, A-I merger

There is no proposal with the government to merge Air India and Indian Airlines into a single company, Civil Aviation minister Praful Patel said today. He said the two premier carriers were operating in a highly competitive market and were constantly endeavouring to improve their services and remain competitive in the market.

To a question on Delhi and Mumbai airport modernisation, he said while the extant policy on foreign equity participation for new airports was permitted up to 74 per cent through the automatic route, up to 100 per cent was allowed through FIPB approval.

However, the two major metro airports were being restructured and modernised through public-private partnership with FDI capped at 49 per cent, he said.

SC/ST backlog

The Centre has ordered to clear the backlog of SC and STs in government jobs by this month-end and is considering the report of a group of ministers which went into the issue of reservation in private sector, the Lok Sabha was informed today.

Steel Minister Ram Vilas Paswan stated this during zero hour while responding to Sukhdeo Paswan (BJP) who sought immediate filling of the backlog pending for years.

Satellite launch

Indian Space Research Organisation is planning to launch 10-12 satellites in the coming four years, minister of state in the Prime Minister's office Prithviraj Chavan informed the Rajya Sabhya today. In a written reply, he said the satellites which have been approved by the government and for which work is currently on are: communication satellies Insat-4a, 4b and 4c, communication satellites Gsat-4 and Gsat-5, advanced satellite for cartographic mapping applications Cartosat-2, microwaveremote sensing satellite with all weather capability radar imaging satellite, satellite for oceanography studies and services oceansat-2.

Remote sensing satellite for natural resources management applications (resourcesat-2), development and qualification of re-entry and recovery technologies for future space transportation system and conduct of micro-gravity research (sre-1and 2), advanced satellite for meteorological observations (Insat-3d), Indo-French joint mission for tropical climatic research (megha-tropiques) are some of the others.