New Delhi: National broadcaster Prasar Bharati was allocated a sum of Rs 2,180 crore as grants-in-aid under the annual budget for 2013-14, which is a 26 per cent increase over the amount received in the previous fiscal. As per the revised estimates for fiscal 2012-13, Rs 1,729 crore had been granted to Prasar Bharati.
Apart from the Rs 2,180 crore as grants-in-aid, Prasar Bharati has also been allocated another Rs 200 crore under the head of Investment in Public Enterprise. The ministry's budget has also increased by nearly 12.6 per cent from the Rs 2,693 crore in the Revised estimates for 2012-13 to Rs 3,035 crore for 2013-14.
The grants-in-aid to Prasar Bharati form the largest component in the allocation that Finance Minister P Chidambaram has given to the Information and Broadcasting Ministry. Of the amount allocated to the I&B Ministry, Rs 2,130 crore is under Non-Plan category while Rs 905 crore falls under Plan category.
From the amount allocated to the I&B Ministry, Rs 239 crore has been allotted for Advertising and Visual Publicity for 2013-14 which is again a strong increase compared to the previous year's revised estimate of Rs 158.42 crore. Among other allocations are Rs 117 crore for Films and Rs 61 crore for Press Information Services.
I&B Minister Manish Tewari had been one of the first leaders to express satisfaction with the annual budget. Tewari's reaction came on social networking site Twitter where he posted, "The three P's of FM's budget - prudent, productive & progressive. It would boost growth and augment equity - UPA's guiding philosophy."
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