Gold biscuits seized in Manipur, two arrested
Imphal, June 26: Gold bicuits, valued at Rs 3 crore, were seized in two separate incidents in border area of Manipur on Tuesday and two smugglers arrested, officials said.
In the first incident, 40 gold biscuits, weighing 6.64 kg and valued at Rs 2 crore, were seized near border town Moreh and the smuggler arrested, a Customs Department official said.
Assistant Commissioner, Customs, R.K. Dorendrajit said that they had received intelligence inputs about the movements of some smugglers and laid traps at Khudengthabi near Moreh.
The smuggler, identified as Mohammad Askar, 40, a resident of Mayang Imphal Begoon in Imphal West district, was found to have concealed the contraband gold in his mini truck which was coming from Moreh to Imphal bringing some legally permitted items.
Dorendrajit also said that his division has seized 26.5 kg of contraband gold, worth Rs 8.32 crore, from January this year.
In the second incident, troopers of 12 Assam Rifles manning the check point at Khudengthabi arrested another gold smuggler, identified as Mohammad Jallanuddin of Lilong in Thoubal district, who was transporting 3.316 kg of gold inside the fuel tank of a van.
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 Its role in determining how ratings agencies track viewing behaviour has been withdrawn.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.
