NEW DELHI: India and Bangladesh are to collaborate to jointly produce a film n the War of Liberation of the former east Pakistan and a roadmap in this connection will be drawn up shortly.

Bangladesh Minister for Information & Broadcasting Hasanul Haq Inu today requested his Indian counterpart Manish Tewari that the Government of India consider providing the names of the soldiers who had laid down their lives during the War of Liberation. He reiterated that the Government of Bangladesh would like to recognize their contribution made during this historical event.

The two Ministers had extensive discussions on critical issues related to Information and Broadcasting Sector.

Both the Ministers agreed to explore the possibility of setting up a joint working group on the critical sectors of the information and broadcasting domain to provide a roadmap for future collaborations between the two countries.

The Bangladesh Information Minister also requested Tewari to facilitate the downlinking of Bangladesh TV Channels through the private distribution network into India.

Both Ministers agreed to intensify the collaboration between Prasar Bharati and Bangladesh State Television in view of the Memorandum of Understanding signed between the two entities in 2011. The MoU had focused on mutual cooperation in the broadcast of television programmes between the two broadcasters. It was also mentioned that both countries could consider exchange of programmes and also explore the possibility of executive TV co-production.

Both Tewari and Inu discussed the possibility of strengthening collaboration as far as training and capacity building was concerned between institutions of mutual interests.

During the discussions, the Ministers agreed to facilitate the exchange of archival material between the two countries. In this context, Tewari highlighted the major policy initiatives undertaken by the Ministry that had enabled the sector to grow exponentially.

Specific reference was made to the initiatives undertaken by the Ministry to commemorate 100 years of Indian Cinema, the Digitization programme and the policies that were introduced to promote inclusive growth in the country. Both the Ministers were assisted by senior officials of the Ministries of India and Bangladesh.