NEW DELHI: News aggregators could be seeing some trouble in paradise. The ministry of information & broadcasting secretary Amit Khare, in a discussion at FICCI Frames 2020, said that FDI (foreign direct investment) rules should be applicable to print media as well as news aggregators.

“I would not like to announce it here; that is not my role. But there is very serious thinking that a level playing field should be there between digital platforms and print media. But the announcement will come after the decision is finally taken by the government,” Khare shared during the discussion.

“26 per cent FDI cap should be applicable to the aggregators as well as print media,” he stated.

Khare was responding to a query that questioned why regulations applied to newspapers were not applicable to news aggregators who pick up their content to sell news.

Popular apps including DailyHunt and Inshorts are among the biggest players in the Indian news aggregator space. DailyHunt has more than 100 million downloads on Google Play Store while Inshorts has over 10 million.