[cr-india] [Mumbai] TRAI Open House on CR

[Vickram Crishna]

At 9:01 AM +0000 10/13/04, sajan venniyoor wrote:
>I guess this means that all of us in Delhi and Mumbai should get 
>together to plan our strategy, and ensure a massive turn-out at the 
>Open House. Been there, done that... but do we have a choice?

I am not sure what exactly you mean by been there, done that, since I 
was the only person present and vocal in the sparsely attended 
meeting on commercial FM called by Mr Kacker last time in Mumbai - 
only a couple of channels showed up too.

This time round, the subject is community radio. As Arun said, we 
need a rational policy for the designated spectrum for FM in this 
country. Divide and rule is an age-old technique used successfully 
for centuries by those who find grassroots development intensely 
threatening. It is no less true for the spectrum, which can become a 
powerful tool for self-reliance when it is used (as defined by the 
ITU, to which our nation is signatory) as a public medium.

I noticed an advt today for service tax - it says something to the 
effect that the revenue deptt does not demand any additional 
paperwork from service tax payers [just the ;-) money will do, thanks 
very much]. Why should revenue collection for the media be any 
different? There are existing laws and rules regarding the payment of 
revenue and its documentation - which clearly specify under what 
circumstances small organisations are exempted from the detailed work 
that larger ones can handle. The current trend in most government 
departments is to simplify, simplify, simplify.

We have less than 400 stations of any kind in India today - and most 
of these are run by a single organisation. As Sajan pointed out 
earlier, AIR is not in a position to handle massive expansion right 
now. And indeed, why should it? It makes a lot more sense to foster 
hundreds and thousands of stations, that can act as a vast training 
ground to feed resources to the few hundred commercial and public 
stations that can and will create an economic framework around this 
medium.

Just as the government wisely decided in 1982 to cease collecting 
annual revenues from receiver owners, judging that such collection 
would probably be infructuous, so must it now follow that line and 
open up the spectrum for intense use, not limiting it to those that 
can afford to pay huge amounts to create an uneven playing field. 
This will happen more effectively when low power broadcasting is 
recognised and encouraged in its diversity of applications, without 
creating separate categories based on ownership and revenue models.

Today's barriers to entry are economic and technical. The second will 
be solved naturally and organically if the first is lowered and 
simplified.

Is anyone else on this list planning to be present for the meeting in 
Mumbai? Please add the prefix [Mumbai] to the subject line as I have 
done above, so that all the listmembers are alerted to what may well 
be a narrower discussion about this specific meeting.

Vickram