MUMBAI: The ministry of information and broadcasting has approved Rs 1.06 crore for the modernisation of Doordarshan Kendra at Vijayawada in Andhra Pradesh.

I&B minister Prakash Javadekar said, “Modernisation of All India Radio (AIR) and Doordarshan (DD) is a continuous process and action for the same is taken from time to time, including projects for setting up of FM transmitters/stations at existing and new locations, replacement and modernisation of transmitters, digitisation of regional news units, adoption of modern high definition (HD) technology, digitisation of studios, digital content dissemination, expansion of DTH and high definition TV etc.”

Responding to another question on the amount spent by the government during the last five years to promote government schemes on social media and applications in Rajya Sabha, Javedkar said that the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting along with its media units - Press Information Bureau, Doordarshan and All India Radio etc, promote the central government programmes and policies through various instruments, including social media platforms such as Twitter, Facebook, Instagram etc out of the overall funds allocated to such media units.

“Further, the various ministries/departments of the central government also promote government programmes and policies on social media. The amount spent on such promotion by various ministries/departments is not centrally maintained,” he informed.

Responding to request for details of leakages of private information of citizens on government hosted platforms, applications and websites, he said, “Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology has informed that the information required by users to log into government Schemes related apps vary from one application to another. For protection of data, Personal Data Protection Bill, 2019 has been introduced in Lok Sabha on December 11, 2019.”