Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Monday announced an outlay of Rs 4071.23 crore for the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting in the 2021-2022 fiscal, a decrease of Rs 303 crore from last year.
The allocation to Prasar Bharati has been reduced to Rs 2,640.11 crore from Rs 2,889.36 crore allotted to it in the last fiscal.
However, the budget for other autonomous bodies like Press Council of India and Films and Television Institute of India (FTII) went up, with the PCI getting Rs 20 crore this time compared to Rs 8.9 crore in 2020-21 and FTII getting Rs 58.58 crore this time as compared to Rs 49.40 crore last fiscal.
For Indian Institute of Mass Communication, the government has earmarked Rs 65 crore, up from Rs 61.30 crore allocated for 2020-21.
In the budget, the allocation for broadcasting under the social services head has gone down from Rs 3,218.56 crore to Rs ,2921.11 crore. A total of Rs 971.26 crore has been allocated for information and publicity.
Information and Broadcasting Minister Prakash Javadekar hailed the budget as "forward-looking", saying India not only won the battle against Covid-19 but also headed towards prosperity.
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