New Delhi: Giving an edge to Indian news providers over foreign ones, government on March 26 issued guidelines for the new uplinking policy for news channels fixing a cap of 26 per cent foreign equity on any company wanting to uplink news and current affairs from India.

The guidelines, issued nearly a week after the Cabinet cleared the new policy, stipulate that the channel applying for uplinking news be registered in India, majority of board directors be resident Indians as also the chief executive officer (CEO) or the head of the channel and those exercising editorial control, Information and Broadcasting Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad told reporters.

Permission for usage of facilities and infrastructure for live news and footage collection and transmission, irrespective of the technology used, will be given to only channels uplinked from India.

However, he said for a smooth roll over, content providers and channels currently using VSAT, RTTS and satellite video phone and similar other infrastructure, which lends itself for use of uplinking and transfer of content, will be allowed a maximum of three months to come within the framework of the guidelines.

PTI