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The Office of the Registrar of Newspapers for India (RNI)
came into existence on 1 July 1956, on the recommendation of
the First Press Commission in 1953 and by amending the Press
and Registration of Books Act, 1867. The Registrar of
Newspapers for India commonly known, as, Press Registrar is
required, inter alia to submit an Annual Report to the
Government of the status of newspapers before 31 December
every year. According to the report submitted by the Press
Registrar for the year 2003-04, the total number of
registered newspapers/ periodicals was 58,469 as on 31
March, 2004. There were 6,287 dailies, 361 tri/bi-weeklies,
20,329 weeklies, 7,694 fortnightly, 17,124 monthlies, 4101
quarterlies, 541 annuals and 2,032 of other periodicity.
Newspapers were registered in English, 22 principal
languages listed in the Eighth Schedule of the Constitution
and 9 languages and dialects listed under other languages.
Delhi had the distinction of publishing newspapers, etc., in
11 principal languages. Maharashtra came next with
publications in 10 out of 18 principal languages followed by
Kerala and Karnataka (9-9) and West Bengal (7).
The number of newspapers reported published (submitted
Annual Statement) was 5,591. The total circulation of
newspapers was 13,30,87,588. The largest number of
newspapers and periodicals registered in any Indian language
is in Hindi (23,169). The second largest number of
newspapers and periodicals registered in any language is in
English (8,492). The state with the largest number of
registered newspapers is Uttar Pradesh (9,492). The state
with the second largest number of registered newspapers is
Delhi (7,872).
The Press Information Bureau (PIB) is the nodal agency of
the Central Government to disseminate information to the
print and electronic media on government policies, programme
initiatives and achievements. The Bureau disseminates
information through Press Releases, Press Notes, Feature
Articles, Backgrounders, Press Briefings Photographs, Press
Conference, Interviews, Database available on Bureau's
website, Press tours, etc.
India's largest news agency, Press Trust of India (PTI) is a
non-profit sharing cooperative owned by the country's
newspapers with a mandate to provide efficient and unbiased
news to all subscribers. Founded on 27 August, 1947, PTI
began functioning from 1 February, 1949.
The PTI offers its news services in English and Hindi
languages. Bhasha is the Hindi language news service of the
agency. PTI subscribers include 500 newspapers in India and
scores abroad. All major TV/radio channels in India and
several abroad, including BBC in London, receive PTI
service.
Besides the news and photo services, the other services of
the agency include mailer packages of Feature, Science
service, Economic service and Data India and screen-based
services as News-scan and Stockscan. A television wing, PTI-TV,
does features and undertakes corporate documentaries on
assignment basis.
The PTI has arrangements with the Associated Press (AP) and
Agence France Presse (AFP) for distribution of their news in
India. AP's photo and international commercial information
are also distributed in the country through PTI.
United News of India (UNI) was incorporated under the
Companies Act, 1956 on 19 December, 1959 and started
functioning effective from 21 March, 1961.
UNI's innovative spirit was evident when it became the first
news agency in India to launch a full-fledged Hindi wire
service `UNIVARTA' in 1982 and a
Photo Service and a
Graphics Service in the same decade. In the early 90s, it
launched the first-ever wire service in URDU.
UNI today has about 688 subscribers. With 72 offices in
India and an employee strength of more than 990 persons,
including 339 journalists, Apart from its own correspondents
in all major cities of the country. It also has about 329
stringers who report from important towns. The countrywide
network has enabled UNI to provide coverage of events from
all the regions of the country.
UNI is the first Indian news agency to deliver its entire
news services in English and Hindi as well as its Photo
Service through the Internet. Subscribers can download the
stories and pictures from the
UNI
and
UNIVARTA
websites.
The Non-Aligned News Agencies Pool (NANAP) is an arrangement
for exchange of news among the news agencies of non-aligned
countries. The Pool was established in 1976 with India as
its first Chairman (1976-79). The Pool is a world-wide
operation embracing four continents, viz., Asia, Europe,
Africa and Latin America. The Pool news is exchanged in four
languages : English, French, Spanish and Arabic.
Pool activities are coordinated by an elected body known as
the Coordinating Committee with a Chairman as its head. The
Chairman and members of the Coordinating Committee are
elected by a General Conference, the top decision-making
organ of Pool. The members of the Coordinating Committee are
elected on the basis of regional representation, continuity,
active participation and rotation.
The Press Council of India has been established under an Act
of Parliament for the purpose of preserving the freedom of
the press and of maintaining and improving the standards of
newspapers and news agencies in India. The Chairman of the
council is by convention, a retired judge of the Supreme
Court of India. The Council has 28 members—20 forms the
newspaper world, five are Members of Parliament (three
nominated by the speaker of the Lok Sabha and two by the
Chairman of the Rajya Sabha and of the remaining three, one
each is nominated by the Sahitya Akademi, the Bar Council of
India and the University Grants Commission.
Radio broadcasts started in India in 1923
by the Radio Club of Bombay. After that two privately owned
transmitters started at Mumbai and Kolkata. The Government
of India took them over in 1927 and started operating them
under the name of Indian Broadcasting Source. In 1936, the
name of the service was changed to All India Radio. Since
1957, it is known as Akashvani.
In 1947 there were only 6 radio stations and 18
transmitters covering 2.5% of area and just 11% of the
population. Now its network comprises 213 broadcasting centres. These include 114 regional stations, 77 local radio
stations, 14 Relay Centres, 3 Exclusive on Vividh Bharti
Centres and 5 community Radio Station. They provide radio
coverage to almost the entire population (99.13%) of the
country.
India's first television centre came
into being on September 15, 1959 as a pilot project. In
August 1965 the first general service started from Delhi. In
1976, television setup was delinked from the Air and given a
separate status and name of `Doordarshan'. August 15, 1982
colour television was introduced in India. Now, Doordarshan
has grown into one of the biggest television networks in the
world.
The first film Pundalik was made by R. G. Torney
and N. G. Chitre in 1912. This was followed by Raja Harish Chandra in 1913 by Dhundiraj Govind Phalke.
The era of talkie film Alam Ara was produced by Ardeshir
Irani.
National Film Development Corporation (NFDC), which was
established in 1975 and further restructured in 1980, is the
central agency to promote good cinema in the country.
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