Norms for uplinking

New Delhi: The Indian government has revised the norms for foreign news channels wishing to uplink from India, making it mandatory for the company to have a 'dominant Indian partner' with a minimum of 51-per cent stake in the venture.

But stakes held by banks and financial institutions will not be included in computing the 51 per cent. This brings the foreign investment norms for news channels at par with the guidelines issued earlier for newspapers.

Addressing newspersons after a meeting chaired by Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee, Information and Broadcasting Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad said: "The thrust of the guidelines is on the insistence of a dominant Indian partner with 51-per cent equity."

Others present in the meeting were Deputy Prime Minister L K Advani, Finance Minister Jaswant Singh, Law Minister Arun Jaitley and Principal Advisor to the PMO Brajesh Mishra.

Specifying the revised guidelines, Prasad said the shareholder could be an individual, a company or a group of companies. "But it has been made clear that the share of the shareholders, be it resident Indians/Hindu undivided family/relative as defined under Section 6 of the Companies Act either singly or in combination, must hold at least 51 per cent of the share."