Thackeray: NDA does not exist
Mumbai: The BJP received a major blow from one of its oldest allies, with the Shiv Sena chief Bal Thackeray saying that the NDA does not exist. He pointed out that most of the smaller parties including that of Vaiko had left, leaving only the Shiv Sena as part of the alliance.

He also said that he wasn't consulted before the BJP gave its nod to the Congress candidate for the Deputy Chairperson of the Rajya Sabha. The BJP, for its part, claimed that there were no cracks in the alliance and that all allies were together.
The Shiv Sena's comments come just days ahead of the BJP's 'Chintan Baithak'.
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DD invites private channels to join DTH platform
Hyderabad: Doordarshan, which is set to launch its DTH (direct to home) platform early next month, has invited private channels to join the platform as a part of the 40-channel free to air offering. The Union Information Minister, S. Jaipal Reddy, said that the DTH platform would offer 40 free-to-air channels. These include 14 channels from Doordarshan, three channels from the Human Resource Development Ministry and 12 more private channels. These 40 channels would be offered free to the DD viewers for the first two years of use. However, they need to install a dish antenna at their home, which costs about Rs 3,000. Thus far, Kairali (Malayalam), Care TV (Health), Sun TV, Jain TV, Alpha TV, MH 1 TV, Raj TV (Tamil and Telugu), Aaj Tak, Headlines Today, Surya TV (Tamil) and Star Utsav, have agreed to be part of the DD DTH.

The DTH project was being rolled out with an outlay of Rs.165 crore. As a apart of this DTH initiative, about 10,000 DTH kits would be provided in eight States which have relatively less DD penetration. As part of the Stage II FM expansion, the Information Ministry is working on the modalities to call for bids, which could pave the way for about 400 FM channels in the country. The phase I of FM is concentrated in the Metros and the phase II would see the expansion across the country. The FM Radio of AIR, which has about 30 percent reach, would be expanded to about 50 per cent of the population.
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