Prasar Bharati floats tender to start manpower audit
1 min read . Updated: 23 Jan 2018, 08:22 PM IST
PremiumPrasar Bharati releases RFP (request for proposal) through Broadcast Engineering Consultants India Ltd (Becil) and will soon finalize a private agency to carry out the audit
New Delhi: In a bid to realign its workforce, public broadcaster Prasar Bharati has floated a tender to start the long overdue manpower audit of the organization.
The broadcaster has released an RFP (request for proposal) through Broadcast Engineering Consultants India Ltd (Becil) and will soon be finalizing a private agency to carry out the audit. The move is in line with the recommendations submitted by Sam Pitroda committee in 2014.
“We have finalized the terms and an RFP (request for proposal) has been floated. A committee has finalized the criteria for selection of the appropriate participant. We will select the agency in consultation with the ministry (information and broadcasting ministry)," said Shashi Shekhar Vempati, chief executive officer at Prasar Bharati, which runs Doordarshan and All India Radio.
While Doordarshan operates 23 television channels and a free-to-air direct-to-home platform DD Free Dish, AIR currently operates a total of 420 radio stations, including FM channels (FM Gold and FM Rainbow), local radio stations, Vividh Bharati stations and five community radio stations.
Prasar Bharati has been suffering from multiple manpower challenges. Firstly, several employee cadres at the public broadcaster have not seen promotions in a long time. Secondly, there has not been a fresh intake of younger employees; the last recruitment programme took place in 1996.
According to the 2014 Sam Pitroda report, Prasar Bharati reportedly had 33,800 employees and a sanctioned strength of 48,022—the highest in the world for a public broadcaster. While BBC (British Broadcasting Corporation) had staff strength of 16,858, public broadcasters of Japan and China stood at 10,000 each.
This comes as a part of an overall revamp of Prasar Bharati to revive the finances and viewership of the broadcaster. Last year, Prasar Bharati had also announced its plans to put the broadcaster at par with BBC and Al Jazeera with the launch of a global digital platform.
For the year ended 31 March, Doordarshan recorded net revenue of Rs827.51 crore, surpassing its annual target of Rs800 crore. The broadcaster had earned Rs755 crore in 2015-16. Meanwhile, All India Radio earned Rs455 crore in annual revenue for the year 2016-17, up from Rs447 crore in 2015-16.
