India Today group's English News Channel, NDTV World and Star News are among the 24-hour news channels still awaiting government's clearance for uplinking from India, Rajya Sabha was informed on Monday.
While India Today's Hindi channel 'Aaj Tak' is already being uplinked from the country, government has permitted one news channel from New Delhi Television Ltd to uplink from India, but is still examining the proposal for another channel NDTV World, Information and Broadcasting Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad said in a written reply.
Also, proposals of BBC, Star News Broadcasting and Independent News Service (for channel called India TV) are still under examination, he added.
On Manoj Bhattacharya's query on what steps have been taken to safeguard the country's security, cultural heritage and sensitivity in case permission is granted to foreign channels to uplink, the minister said: "The policy of uplinking of foreign-owned news and current affairs TV channels from India is being examined for purposes of providing safeguards."
Among the 24-hour news channels already granted uplinking permission include Sun TV's four channels, Jain TV, Zee News and seven separate channels from Sahara Sanchar Ltd.
