The launching of a 'Kisan TV' channel dedicated to farmers and agriculture, another channel for the North East and measures to encourage community radio were proposed today by Finance Minister Arun Jaitley in his budgest speech.
The Finance Minister also said sale of space for advertisements in print media would remain excluded from service tax.
In his speech, he also said Goa been declared as the permanent venue for International Film Festival of India and there is an urgent need to develop world class convention facilities which the government would support developing in Public Private Partnership (PPP) mode.
"Kisan TV, dedicated to the interests of the agriculture and allied sector will be launched in the current financial year. This will disseminate real time information to farmers information regarding new farming techniques, water conservation, organic farming etc," Jaitley said in his speech in Parliament.
He proposed setting aside Rs 100 crore for this channel. In addition, he also announced a 24X7 channel for North East called 'Arun Prabha'.
In his speech, the Finance minister also said Goa has emerged as a major international convention centre.
"It has also been declared as the permanent venue for International Film Festival of India. There is an urgent need to develop world class convention facilities. This can best be done in close collaboration with the private sector. Government of India will fully support this initiative to develop the facilities in PPP mode through the VGF scheme," Jaitley said.
Later speaking to reporters, Information and Broadcasting minister Prakash Javadekar said "Goa will now have an international class infrastructure and it will be through PPP."
Jaitley in his speech also said that to encourage the growth of community radio, a new scheme is being taken up with an allocation of Rs 100 crore which would support about 600 new and existing community radio stations.
