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Lifting the ban on Foreign Newspapers – will India cross the bridge?
India is considering lifting the ban on printing of foreign newspapers in India. The current laws permit selling the foreign newspapers but not printing the same. Foreign newspapers are available in India printed in neighboring countries and are normally late to arrive. The Paris-based International Herald Tribune is challenging the currently forbidden law under a 50-year-old cabinet resolution.
Government last year allowed Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) of up to 26% in any domestic paper.
“Our mind is now not as closed to the publication of foreign newspapers as it has been,” said S. Jaipal Reddy, minister for information, broadcasting and culture, at a seminar on the newspaper industry on Thursday. “We have not yet taken a view, but the uncertainty should lift within a month or so.”
In a speech at the 30th birthday celebrations of India's Business Standard newspaper, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said: “I welcome greater foreign participation in our media because India is fundamentally an open society with an open economy.”
Does this really mean that India is on the verge of allowing Foreign Media to start printing and flooding the market with international newspapers? Not really, say experts. India will follow the same model China follows.
The biggest problem for India unlike China is that India has a population where the educated and elite class knows English very well. The Foreign newspapers will be able to penetrate the core Indian middle-class driven lucrative market easily. Foreign media may or may not be sensitive to the need of the Government or the country.
BIZ/FINANCE ARTICLES
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