The Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs approved the “Broadcasting Infrastructure and Network Development (BIND)” scheme to upgrade Prasar Bharati in order to expand the country’s public service broadcasting infrastructure.
BIND Scheme
The BIND scheme is the vehicle through which Prasar Bharati receives financial assistance for expenses related to the expansion and upgrade of its broadcasting infrastructure, content development, and civil work.
Its features include:
- Outreach expansion: It will allow the public broadcaster to upgrade its facilities with better infrastructure, broadening its reach in the LWE, border, and strategic areas, and providing high-quality content to viewers.
- Quality content: Another major priority area of the scheme is the creation of high-quality content for both domestic and international audiences, as well as ensuring viewers have access to a diverse range of content.
- More TV channels: It aims to increase the capacity of the DTH platform in order to accommodate more channels.
- Radio coverage will be expanded: The scheme will increase AIR FM transmitter coverage in the country to 66 percent by geographical area and 80 percent by population, up from 59 percent and 68 percent, respectively.
- Free DISH services: The scheme also calls for the free distribution of over 8 lakh DD Free Dish STBs to people living in remote, tribal, left-wing extremist, and border areas.
Benefits provided
- The project has the potential to generate indirect employment through manufacturing and services related to broadcast equipment supply and installation.
- Content generation and content innovation for AIR and DD have the potential to indirectly employ people with diverse media experience in the content production sector, which includes TV/radio production, transmission, and associated media-related services.
- Furthermore, the project to expand DD Free Dish’s reach is expected to create job opportunities in the manufacturing of DD Free Dish DTH boxes.
Source: https://pib.gov.in/Pressreleaseshare.aspx?PRID=1562957