Ready to meet Iranian President, says Trump
Washington, July 31 : US President Donald Trump on Monday offered to meet Iranian President Hassan Rouhani without any preconditions, at any time he wants.
"If they want to meet, we'll meet," BBC quoted Trump as saying at a news conference at the White House with Italian Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte.
"I would meet with anybody. I believe in meetings," Trump said, adding that he would set "no preconditions" for a meeting with the Iranians. "If they want to meet, I'll meet."
Ever since Trump pulled out of the Iran nuclear deal in May, the relations between the two countries have deteriorated, with Washington preparing to re-impose sanctions on Tehran within days.
However, the other signers of the pact - Russia, China, the UK , France and Germany - are trying to salvage the nuclear deal, the future of which depends in large measure on guaranteeing the sale of Iranian crude.
The latest move by the US President comes after he and the Iranian President exchanged hostile warnings earlier this month amid rising tensions.
In an earlier tweet, Trump said: "Never, ever threaten the US again or you will suffer consequences the likes of which few throughout history have ever suffered before."
The tweet was in response to Rouhani's warning that if Washington launched any conflict with Iran it would find itself in "the mother of all wars".
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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.
