New Delhi : The Ministry of Information and Broadcasting (I&B) is making efforts to make the working of Registrar of Newspapers for India (RNI) online, Information and Broadcasting Minister M. Venkaiah Naidu said here on Friday.
The new process is aimed to bring transparency and accountability to the RNI, Naidu said.
The members of the Consultative Committee, chaired by Naidu, were apprised by him about the steps being taken by the ministry to streamline the processes and functioning of the RNI — the office to keep records of all newspapers published in India.
He said that RNI has constantly re-engineered itself to make procedures and processes simpler and that the focus of the Ministry is to make the processes online thereby promoting transparency and accountability.
Naidu also mentioned the phenomenal growth of print media sector, particularly after the opening up of the economy in the 1990s, and changes in policy and guidelines concerning it.
The minister expressed a need to update contemporaries, revise the legal mechanism in the print sector, and to give statutory backing to Print Media Policy and various guidelines.
To this end, he told the members about the salient features of the proposed Press and Registration of Books and Publication (PRBP) Bill.
Members of the committee gave suggestions regarding steps to be taken for modernisation of RNI, simplification of various processes and use of technology.