NEW DELHI: The government is not considering any proposal to make All India Radio and Doordarshan as separate corporate entities, Parliament was told on 8 February 2017.

Minister of State for Information and Broadcasting Rajyavardhan Rathore said that the two organizations are being professionalized in accordance with the recommendations of the Sam Pitroda Committee submitted three years earlier.

He said that a panel of Secretaries had been set up to examine the report and suggest other ways to modernize the organizations.

But the panel had not submitted any report so far, Rathore added.

(Prasar Bharati Board had set up some committees earlier to go into the various recommendations of the Sam Pitroda Committee and some action has already been initiated, Ministry sources told indianteleision.com.)

Prasar Bharati was established as an autonomous corporation on 23 November 1997 under the Prasar Bharati (Broadcasting Corporation of India) Act 1990. The Act provided full functional autonomy to Prasar Bharati. The general superintendence, direction, and management of Prasar Bharati is vested in the Prasar Bharati Board which exercises all powers and does all acts and things on behalf of the corporation, as enshrined in the act including disciplinary and full supervisory powers over its employees.

Prasar Bharati being the public broadcaster has been mandated to organize and conduct public broadcasting services with the intent to inform, educate and entertain the public. Since public broadcasting is largely non-commercial, the government continues to financially support Prasar Bharati.