During the commencement of the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs meeting, the central government approved of Rs 2,539.61 crore of funds to develop the infrastructure for public service broadcasters, Prasar Bharati — All India Radio (AIR) and Doordarshan (DD).
On Wednesday, the cabinet approved the proposal of the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting regarding Broadcasting Infrastructure and Network Development (BIND) which is a central sector scheme worth Rs 2,539.61 crore from 2025-2026.
As per information, the BIND is a vehicle that will provide financial support to Prasar Bharati for expenses related to its expansion and upgradation of its broadcasting infrastructure, content development and organisational-related civil work.
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The government has also decided to distribute eight lakh DD Free Dish DTH Set-Top Boxes (DTBs) in remote tribal areas like Left Wing Extremism (LWE), border areas and other aspirational districts. This will lead to the expansion of FM coverage of AIR to more than 80 per cent of the country’s population.
Information and Broadcasting Minister Anurag Thakur said, “Another major priority area of the scheme is the development of high-quality content for both domestic and international audience. This will ensure the availability of diverse content by upgrading the capacity of DTH platform to accommodate more channels. As a part of the project, OB vans will be purchased and digital upgradation of DD and AIR Studios will be done to make them HD ready.”
Doordarshan currently runs 36 TV stations, including 28 regional channels, while AIR serves over 500 broadcasting locations. The BIND Scheme will raise the geographic and demographic coverage of AIR FM transmitters in the nation from 59 and 68 percent, respectively, to 66 per cent and 80 per cent respectively. Additionally, the Scheme calls for the free distribution of more than 8 lakh DD Free Dish STBs to residents of border, remote, tribal, and LWE areas.
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In addition to enhancing the scope of public broadcasting, this project also has the potential to generate indirect employment by way of manufacturing and will provide services related to supply and installation of broadcast equipment.
“Content generation and content innovation for AIR and DD has the potential of indirect employment of persons with varied experience of different media fields in the content production sector including TV/Radio production, transmission and associated media related services. Further, the project for expansion of the reach of DD Free Dish is expected to generate employment opportunities in the manufacturing of the DD Free Dish DTH Boxes,” Thakur said.
