NEW DELHI: Information and Broadcasting minister Manish Tewari told various stakeholders in the broadcasting sector that the government was not averse to raising limits of foreign direct investment wherever needed.

However, he told in a meeting of the stakeholders summoned by the Ministry that all this could only be done after detailed discussion amongst the stakeholders and with different ministries of the government since it also involved issues linked to security and so on.

Ministry Secretary Uday Kumar Varma, who was attending his last formal meeting with the broadcasting industry as he is retiring at the end of the month, asked the stakeholders to articulate their point of view on paper so that the Ministry could study the issue in depth.

Varma later told Radioandmusic.com that there were divergent views with one section having reservations and feeling that increasing the FDI limits could be harmful to the smaller radio and television channels.

At present the limit is 26 per cent foreign investment under the Government route for FM Radio, under the existing pattern of FDI approved by the Union Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs in September last year.

The CCEA approved the proposal of the Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion for review of the policy on foreign investment in companies operating in the broadcasting sector. The changes were in keeping with recommendations made by the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India which had presented its recommendations in June 2010, two years after an earlier paper on the subject in 2008. TRAI was not invited to the meeting today.