MUMBAI: BBC Global News has restructured its India operations to create a new position of chief operating officer to be helmed by Preet Dhupar, the Director Finance and Operations of BBC Global News and BBC Worldwide in India.

Having brought together its TV and online interests globally, the BBC has created this role in India in order to ensure an integrated and consistent focus on its English language news interests during a period of rapid change and growth in the Indian media sector.

As the COO of BBC World News India, Dhupar will oversee BBC?s commercial news operations which includes BBC World News and BBC.com/news.

In addition to her existing remit, Preet will take responsibility for determining the BBC?s commercial priorities and targets for news across India and for monitoring performance against them in terms of advertising revenues, content distribution and overall audience growth.

BBC Global News COO Jim Egan says, ?This appointment comes at a crucial time for BBC Global News Limited in India as we build on recent successes and seek to expand onto new and evolving platforms. Preet will bring increased focus to the market, helping to support our ambition of bringing world class international journalism to dynamic and sophisticated Indian audiences.?

As Director Finance and Operations, Dhupar has been responsible for providing operational leadership and management of the BBC?s commercial businesses in India and Singapore.

While supporting growth opportunities in the market, her core role has been to provide financial, commercial and regulatory expertise to the business. Prior to this, Preet was part of the BBC?s global finance team based in London.

A chartered accountant by qualification, Preet joined the BBC in 2000 and was instrumental in setting up operations in India.

Before joining the BBC, she worked with Becton Dickinson India in a strategy and financial planning role as part of the team that established the company?s business in India. She has also worked for Caltex and KPMG in India.

On January 14, BBC World News launched from new studios in Central London with a refreshed line-up of presenters and programmes, such as Global with Jon Sopel.

MUMBAI: The Ministry of Information & Broadcasting (MIB) has earmarked an outlay of Rs 20 million for carrying out an anti-piracy initiative in the audio-visual sector under the 12th 5-year plan from 2012-17.

Piracy continues to be a key challenge for the Indian film sector and has been a prime reason for decline of Home Video market in India. It is estimated by the FICCI-KPMG report for 2011 that the piracy market accounts for 600-700 million unit sales of DVDs each year with more than 10000 vendors operating in illegitimate DVD market. With increased competition within this sector, prices of pirated DVDs are declining as compared to previous years.

Another new emerging threat to legitimate exhibition of films is illegal download of films available on websites. The magnitude of this problem is set to increase in the coming years, given the expansion and availability of broadband infrastructure.

While digital technology on the one hand plays a significant role in accessibility of content across various new media platforms, the film sector faces a massive challenge of grappling with pirated software on web-based platforms in the current Indian environment where mechanisms for regulation of content on the Internet are non-existent.

According to the MIB, the money from piracy goes towards funding anti-national activities which makes the government intervention necessary. Hence, it has been envisaged to spread an awareness campaign against piracy in collaboration with stakeholders like business chambers, schools, and colleges.

Some of the major activities planned are as follows:
(a) Campaign on piracy through audio-visual, internet and print media;

(b) A dedicated web portal;

(c) Training programmes and workshops to sensitize police, judicial, administrative officials, multiplex and cinema hall owners about the Copyright Act;

(d) Conduct research on effects of piracy and develop public-private strategies to combat piracy;

(e) Production of a film/documentary;

(f) Efforts at inclusion of anti-piracy awareness material in the curriculum of the schools and colleges;

(g) Road shows/Street Plays for creating awareness;

(h) Programme in Schools & Colleges: Debate/Essay competition;

The planned activities will be implemented in collaboration with Business Chambers and NGOs, wherever possible.