Challenges galore for new I&B secretary Sanjay Jaju

The media industry was taken by surprise on Saturday with the appointment of a new secretary of the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting.

I&B secretary Apurva Chandra was replaced by Sanjay Jaju as part of a top-level bureaucratic reshuffle effected by the Centre on Saturday.

Senior industry leaders questioned the Modi government’s move ahead of crucial elections as the new secretary would take time to know the industry and the challenges.

During the two-and-a-half-year tenure, Chandra steered the industry in navigating various challenges it is facing, especially post-Covid.

A new minister will also likely take charge of the I&B ministry after the elections.

As the media and entertainment industry is trying to navigate the multiple challenges it is facing today, it pins hopes on the new team at the helm of the I&B ministry.

While Jaju will have immediate challenges in getting a hang of the industry and its leaders as quickly as possible, the industry is counting on his experience as secretary of the Information and Technology ministry in the Andhra Pradesh government a decade ago.

“It appears that the government has picked up Jaju to lead the I&B ministry given his experience and understanding of the sector,” said an industry observer.

Creating a consensus on the draft Broadcast Services (Regulation) Bill, 2023, which is under consultation with the industry stakeholders, will be a challenging task for Jaju given several objections raised by the various industry bodies.

The OTT players and other digital industry bodies vehemently opposed the inclusion of OTT platform operators in “Broadcasting Network Operator” in the proposed bill fearing a larger government control on digital medium at par with television.

Although the government has been denying any intention to regulate the nascent but fast-growing OTT sector, the provision of pre-screening content in the draft bill has been termed as a pre-censorship by the players.

The sector has become a victim of public pressure and many OTT shows have been discontinued recently in the absence of any support from the government. The sector expects the government to uphold creative freedom for the sake of the industry’s growth.

The National Broadcasting Policy announced by the ministry is another unfinished task that Jaju will have to take up.

Even though the government has no business with television ratings for the broadcast industry, the alleged corruption and malpractices by various stakeholders invited government interference in the ratings system.

The new secretary is expected to fix the rating-related issues including the demand from the news genre for unrolled data.

The ministry’s push to increase the sample size through the return path data is another unfinished task that Jaju will take up.

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