Karnataka draws blueprint for farm loan waiver
Bengaluru, July 25 : The Karnataka government has drawn a blueprint to waive crop loans of farmers from state-run and co-operative banks in the southern state, an official statement said.
"The government has prepared a blueprint to waive off loans upto Rs 48,000 crore that includes loans from co-operative banks, subsidy and crop loans granted by the state-run banks," said a statement from the Chief Minister's Office.
The blueprint includes the Rs 34,000 crore loans to be waived as announced by Chief Minister H.D. Kumaraswamy while presenting the state Budget on July 5.
Total loans amounting upto Rs 48,000 crore to be waived include Rs 37,159 crore crop loans granted to the farmers by state-owned banks and about Rs 9,500 crore of current loans, the statement added.
The banks are to ready the details of farm loans from across the state that are eligible to waived, and the process of waiver will commence after the state's review.
As per the election manifesto promises of the Janata Dal-Secular (JD-S) to waive farm loans if voted to power, Kumaraswamy, who is also the state party chief, had announced in his budget speech to waive upto Rs 2 lakh crop loans per farmer family.
"All crop loans defaulted by farmers upto December 31, 2017 are waived in the first stage. Only loans borrowed from district co-operative banks and state co-operatives are waived in the first stage," he had said.
The budget had also proposed to allot Rs 6,500 crore to enable farmers avail fresh loans after they submit a clearance certificate from the department concerned that their loan arrears have been waived.
The previous waiver by former Chief Minister Siddaramaiah had cost the state exchequer Rs 8,165-crore.
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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.
