India is working on policy changes in the media sector that would further add to the PM Narendra Modi government’s efforts towards ease of doing business (EODB) in the country.

Pointing out that the present government’s endeavour is  to make things easy, Anurag Thakur, Minister for Information and Broadcasting (MIB), on Monday said his ministry is working on various aspects of policies relating to the media and entertainment sector that would add to the EODB.

The Minister was speaking in New Delhi at the unveiling of a new and swanky Broadcast Seva Portal, which will be an one-stop shop for all things media — policies, government clearances, licences, live tracking of applications, et al.

More importantly, according to Thakur, MIB’s broadcast portal would soon be linked to the government’s flagship ‘National Single Window System’.

The event was attended by senior government officials and top honchos of many media companies who were all praise for the government efforts for undertaking such an initiative that had been a longstanding demand of the industry.

According to Thakur, the government has harnessed technology to bring transparency in the system and make it more accountable. The new and cutting-edge portal will reduce the turnaround time of applications and, at the same time, will help applicants track the progress.

This portal will reduce the human interface that was required earlier, adding to the capacity building of the ministry and will be a major step towards Ease of Doing Business, the Minister added.

“The portal is a giant leap forward in realizing Hon’ble Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s mantra of ‘minimum government, maximum governance’, as this simple and user-friendly web portal provides a broadcaster an end-to-end solution with just a click of a mouse,” the Minister asserted.

The ministry is open to further improvements that the industry may feel are required.

The 360 degree digital solution will facilitate the stakeholders in seeking permissions, applying for registration, tracking applications, calculating fees and executing payments. This portal will provide its services, under the wider umbrella efforts of Digital India, to all the stakeholders, including private satellite TV channels, teleport operators, MSOs, community and private radio channels.

India has over 900 licenced satellite TV channels, 70 registered teleport operators, over 1,700 MSOs, 350 community radio stations and 380 private FM channels.

Earlier, MIB secretary Apurva Chandra said that the new portal has several improvements over the previous version and has incorporated suggestions from stakeholders over a trial period of one month.

The portal would bring transparency, accountability and responsiveness in the ecosystem and all information will be available on a single dashboard.