Kerala completes five lakh houses under LIFE Mission, says CM Vijayan
Thiruvananthapuram (PTI): The LDF government has completed the construction of five lakh houses under the LIFE Mission, Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan said on Monday, calling it a major step towards making Kerala free of homelessness.
In a Facebook post, Vijayan said the housing scheme was launched in 2016 with the aim of providing secure homes to the homeless across the state.
"Under the LIFE Mission launched by the LDF government in 2016, with the aim of making Kerala free of homelessness, the construction of five lakh houses has been completed," he said.
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The Chief Minister said the state-level announcement marking the achievement will be held in Thiruvananthapuram on February 24.
He added that around Rs 20,831.60 crore has been spent on the project up to February 2026.
Highlighting the scale of the programme, Vijayan said the scheme provides financial assistance of Rs 4 lakh to ordinary families and Rs 6 lakh to Scheduled Tribe families for house construction.
"The LIFE Mission has emerged as a model for the country in terms of efficiency and inclusiveness," the CM said, describing it as a key part of the LDF government's development agenda.
Calling for collective effort to build a better society, Vijayan said, "Let us move forward together to build a New Kerala where everyone can live with happiness and dignity."
The LIFE Mission is one of the flagship welfare programmes of the LDF government and is seen as a major intervention in Kerala's housing sector.
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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.
