AICTE like body to regulate media education

By Ruchi Shrimali

The Twelfth Five-Year Plan has often been called the Education Plan of India. In its recommendations to the Planning Commission, the Working Group on Broadcasting has proposed that a Media Council should be formed to regulate electronic media education in the country, much on the lines of AICTE that regulates technical education.

The group has also suggested that the broadcasting, cable, DTH and other content distribution sectors (such as AIR and Doordarshan) should be brought at par with the infrastructure industry in terms of benefits and incentives available to them, to boost the process of digitization of content and information.

Earlier, it was announced by the government that it will scrap the two biggest regulators of India - UGC and AICTE - and introduce a new single regulator called the National Council for Higher Education and Research (NCHER) instead.

NCHER is supposed to regulate all educational institutions across India, except medical and pharma institutes. It is not clear yet that the proposed Media Council will be an independent body or will come under the jurisdiction of NCHER.