Three brothers killed in Andhra blast
Vijayawada, July 31 : Three brothers were killed in a bomb blast in Andhra Pradesh's Kurnool town on Tuesday, police said.
The incident occurred near Nandyal checkpost on the outskirts of Kurnool when the three brothers, including two real estate developers, were surveying a piece of land which they had purchased sometime back.
The deceased have been identified as J. Mallikarjuna, J. Rajasekhar -- both real estate businessmen and J. Sreenu, an Assistant Sub-Inspector of Police.
Another person, identified as Sudhakar, a driver in the Survey Department, was injured.
According to the police, the blast occurred when some waste material was set on fire by some workers. While two brothers died on the spot, Sreenu succumbed at Kurnool Government Hospital.
The police suspect that country-made bombs were kept in the garbage. A police officer said an investigation is on to find out if somebody had concealed the bombs in the field or if they were deliberately planted to target the brothers.
According to people living in the vicinity, the brothers were well-known in the town as they had executed several projects. They had purchased that piece of land for Rs 20 crore.
Let the Truth be known. If you read VB and like VB, please be a VB Supporter and Help us deliver the Truth to one and all.
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 Its role in determining how ratings agencies track viewing behaviour has been withdrawn.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.
