NEW DELHI: The much-touted high-powered committee set up by the government, under the chairmanship of Planning Commission member N K Singh, to look into ways of inducing venture capital funding in the entertainment industry would meet here on 13 December to deliberate on the issue.
Government sources said that considering Singh's penchant for liberalisation, the committee's recommendations may be "radical".
The terms of reference of the committee on VC funding are two-fold: suggest a roadmap outlining a strategy to attract venture capital companies/funds to invest in the entertainment sector and study the existing investment regime in India in order to identify areas for policy changes to facilitate such investment.
According to an Arthur Andersen Ficci (AA Ficci) study, the entertainment industry can be conservatively estimated at about Rs 96 billion, which is expected to grow to about Rs 286 billion by the financial year 2005.
The other members of the committee, which has been given six weeks' time to submit recommendations, include ICICI CMD KV Kamath, additional secretary in the department of banking in the finance ministry Vinod Rai, I&B ministry secretary Pawan Chopra and directorate general of foreign trade L Mansingh.
Though the VC funding panel has been set up for the entertainment sector, which also includes TV and radio broadcasting, apart from films, the industry representation is dominated by those active in the film sector.
Until now, according to the ministry, approximately Rs 7,000 million financial assistance has been sanctioned by financial institutions and banks after the film industry was granted an industry status. Out of this Rs 2,000 million has been sanctioned by Industrial Development Bank of India,
while the rest has been by various banks like the State Bank of India.
"Part of our efforts have been focussed on making the regimes covering the flow of finances such as the FDI and the lending regimes of commercial banks and the IDBI more encouraging," according to information and broadcasting minister Ravi Shankar Prasad.
