An opinion article contends that unimplemented oversight provisions in the 1990 Act leave India's public broadcaster short of its statutory promise, ahead of Public Service Broadcasting Day on 12 November.

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• Prasar Bharati was created under the Prasar Bharati (Broadcasting Corporation of India) Act, 1990, which came into force only in 1997.
• The Act was meant to give All India Radio and Doordarshan autonomy from direct government control.
• Section 13 provides for a 22-member Parliamentary Committee to oversee the corporation, which the article says was never constituted.
• Sections 14 and 15 provide for a Broadcasting Council to hear complaints, which the article says was never set up.
• Section 23 allows the Centre to issue directions to the corporation.
• The article argues that assets and staff were never fully transferred and that funding still depends on the Ministry.
• Proposed remedies include constituting the committee and council, professionalising the Board, independent funding and amending the Act.
• Governments have defended a public broadcaster's role in communicating public programmes and point to ministerial accountability to Parliament.
• In the Cricket Association of Bengal case (1995), the Supreme Court held that airwaves are public property.
• Public Service Broadcasting Day falls on 12 November, marking Mahatma Gandhi's only All India Radio broadcast in 1947, to Partition refugees at Kurukshetra.
• Prasar Bharati has expanded into digital platforms, including an OTT service launched in 2024.

Tags: PrasarBharati, PublicServiceBroadcasting, MediaGovernance