Bihar Legislative Council passes resolution congratulating cricketer Vaibhav Sooryavanshi
Patna (PTI): The Bihar Legislative Council on Monday passed a resolution congratulating cricketer Vaibhav Sooryavanshi for his stellar performance in the U-19 World Cup, which helped the Indian team clinch the title on February 6.
BJP MLC Sanjay Prakash introduced the resolution in the House to congratulate Sooryavanshi, a day after the teen was felicitated by Chief Minister Nitish Kumar.
On Sunday, Kumar felicitated Sooryavanshi with a Rs 50-lakh cheque following his return to the state after the tournament.
The 14-year-old cricketer scored 175 runs in 80 balls in the final match against England and received both the Player of the Match and Player of the Series awards.
Legislative council chairman Awadhesh Narayan Singh said, "Kumar felicitated Vaibhav Sooryavanshi. For this, I would like to thank the CM and the government."
Meanwhile, RJD MLC Sunil Singh asserted that Sooryavanshi should have been given a cheque of Rs 1 crore instead.
"Rs 50 lakh is a small sum. Our CM is big-hearted. He should have felicitated the cricketer with Rs 1 crore," Singh said.
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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 Its role in determining how ratings agencies track viewing behaviour has been withdrawn.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.
