PM to lay stone of north India's first semiconductor unit, open Namo Bharat corridor in UP next week
Lucknow (PTI): Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath has said that Prime Minister Narendra Modi will lay the foundation stone of north India's first semiconductor manufacturing unit in Gautam Buddh Nagar and inaugurate the Namo Bharat rapid rail corridor along with the Meerut Metro next week, marking major milestones in the state's infrastructure push.
Speaking in the Legislative Council during the Budget Session on Monday, Adityanath said Uttar Pradesh today has "excellent connectivity by water, land and air", and highlighted the prime minister's upcoming engagements in the state.
He said the foundation stone of the semiconductor unit in Gautam Buddh Nagar would be laid on February 21, terming it a significant step towards making the state a hub for high-technology manufacturing.
On February 22, Modi will inaugurate the remaining stretches of the 82-km Delhi-Ghaziabad-Meerut Namo Bharat corridor, connecting Sarai Kale Khan in Delhi with Modipuram in Meerut, he said.
Alongside, the 23-km Meerut Metro corridor with 13 stations will also be launched.
According to officials, the remaining sections include a 5-km stretch in Delhi between Sarai Kale Khan and New Ashok Nagar, and a 21-km stretch from Meerut South to Modipuram.
The 82-km corridor comprises key stations such as Sarai Kale Khan, Anand Vihar, Ghaziabad, Guldhar, Muradnagar, Modinagar South, Modinagar North and Meerut South, forming the backbone of the regional rapid transit system connecting major residential, commercial and industrial clusters.
Recalling the pre-2017 situation, Adityanath said it earlier took around three hours to travel from Meerut to Delhi and even then security was not guaranteed.
"Today, the distance between Delhi and Meerut can be covered in about 45 minutes through the 12-lane highway, and with the rapid rail, it will be further streamlined," he said, adding that law and order had significantly improved.
Adityanath said Uttar Pradesh accounts for 55 per cent of the country's total expressway network and has the largest railway network in India. The state currently has a network of 22 expressways, of which seven are operational, five are under construction and work on 10 others is underway, he added.
He said metro services are running on six corridors in the state, and the Meerut corridor will be inaugurated by the prime minister on February 22.
Highlighting inland waterways, the chief minister said the Varanasi-Haldia waterway has been developed, with terminals at Ramnagar, Chandauli, Mirzapur and Ghazipur being upgraded.
He also said that when his government assumed office, only two airports were fully operational in the state and two were partially functional.
"Today, there are 16 airports in Uttar Pradesh, including four international airports, while the fifth international airport at Jewar is ready," he said, adding that efforts are on to take the project forward this month with the prime minister's participation.
The country's first Maintenance, Repair and Overhaul (MRO) hub is also being established at Jewar, he added, underlining the state's emergence as a major connectivity and logistics hub.
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Union government assumes full control over TV ratings, TRAI role curtailed: Report
New Delhi: The Union government has assumed full control over television audience measurement, removing the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) from oversight of the ratings system that underpins the country’s ₹36,000 crore television advertising market, according to a report published on Wednesday.
The report in Mint said the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting (MIB) now has exclusive authority over the framework governing how television ratings are measured and regulated. TRAI had been entrusted with oversight of TV ratings in 2012 during the UPA government’s tenure. TRAI is no longer mentioned in the relevant policy document, effectively vesting sole authority in the MIB.
The report said TRAI will continue to regulate other aspects of broadcasting, including channel pricing, advertising caps, interconnection and distribution norms, service quality and compliance standards. Its role in determining how ratings agencies track viewing behaviour has been withdrawn.
Television Rating Points (TRPs), which reflect viewership patterns, guide advertisers in deciding where to allocate spending across channels and time slots.
A government source quoted in the report said the ministry could modify TRAI’s decisions even when the regulator oversaw broadcasting.
A former CEO of Prasar Bharati told the newspaper that the MIB has historically regulated rating agencies through licensing and guidelines, and by holding them accountable under existing norms.
During its tenure overseeing ratings, TRAI had taken decisions affecting the broadcast sector, which included capping advertising time at 12 minutes per hour following complaints about excessive commercial breaks and it now remains unclear how these matters will be addressed under the revised arrangement.
Satya N. Gupta, former principal advisor at TRAI, was quoted as saying that merging regulatory functions with policy oversight and removing an independent regulator from the process was a retrograde step.
TRAI’s involvement in broadcasting had earlier attracted criticism as well. In 2012, its consultation paper on quantitative limits on television advertising was viewed by some as overlapping with the Advertising Standards Council of India’s code. Subsequent recommendations covering television audience measurement, ownership of news channels and issues such as paid news had also raised concerns among sections of the industry.
Television ratings have faced scrutiny in recent years, including during the controversy involving the Broadcast Audience Research Council (BARC), where officials of the ratings body were prosecuted over allegations of manipulation of viewership data.
