TRAI

Telecom Regulatory authority of India was established on 20 February 1997 by an Act of

Parliament to regulate telecom services and tariffs in India. Earlier regulation of telecom services
and tariffs was overseen by the Central Government.
TRAI's mission is to create and nurture conditions for growth of telecommunications in India to
enable the country to have a leading role in the emerging global information society.[3]
One of its main objectives is to provide a fair and transparent environment that promotes a level
playing field and facilitates fair competition in the market. TRAI regularly issues orders and
directions on various subjects such as tariffs, interconnections, quality of service, Direct To
Home (DTH) services and mobile number portability.
In January 2016, TRAI introduced an important change in telecommunication that would benefit
all consumers. Effective from 1 January 2016, consumers will be compensated for call drops.
However, there is a catch, per the rule, mobile users will get a compensation of Re 1 for every
dropped call but it will be limited to a maximum three dropped calls in a day. This regulation has
been quashed by Supreme Court on the ground of being "unreasonable, arbitrary and
unconstitutional".[4]

Secretariat
TRAI is administered through a Secretariat headed by a secretary. All proposals are processed
by the secretary, who organises the agenda for Authority meetings (consulting with the
Chairman), prepares the minutes and issues regulations in accordance to the meetings. The
secretary is assisted by advisors. These include Mobile Network, Interconnection and Fixed
Network, BroadBand and Policy Analysis, Quality of Service, Broadcasting & Cable Services,
Economic Regulation, Financial Analysis & IFA, Legal, Consumer Affairs & International Relation
and Administration & Personnel. Officers are selected from the premier Indian
Telecommunications Service and also from the Indian Administrative Service.[5]

TRAI has contributed significantly in the growth of telecom services, resulting in

increase in consumer base and deployment of vast network of the telecom services
by the service providers across the length and breadth of the country. These
measures have resulted in overall benefits to the consumer in terms of choice of
services, affordable tariff of telecom services, and better quality of services etc. The
exponential growth in subscriber numbers and its reach establishes the effective
functioning of the Organisation. These achievements are result of supportive
regulatory environment created by Telecom Regulatory Authority of India through
issue of various Regulations, Directions and Orders.
TRAI has taken various steps, from time to time to protect the interests of
consumers. A brief summary of these measures are given below:

TRAI has been monitoring quality of service provided by Service Providers against the
benchmarks laid down by TRAI for the various quality of service parameters through
Quality of Service Regulations issued from time to time, through quarterly
Performance Monitoring Reports (PMRs) submitted by service providers. TRAI also
undertakes objective assessment of the Quality of Service of Basic, Cellular and
Broadband Services through independent agencies. A customer satisfaction survey is
also conducted quarterly through these agencies. The results of these audit and
surveys are being published for public/Stakeholders knowledge. TRAI has been
following up with the Service Providers for addressing deficiencies in meeting the
Quality of Service benchmarks.

To further strengthen the quality of standards TRAI had issued “The Standards of
Quality of Service of Basic Telephone Service (Wireline) and Cellular Mobile
Telephone Services (Second Amendment) Regulation, 2012 on 8th November 2012
for financial disincentives on those service providers who fail to meet the prescribed
Quality of Service (QoS) benchmarks for Basic Telephone Service (Wireline) and
Cellular Mobile Telephone Service and The Quality of Service of Broadband Service
(Amendment) Regulations, 2012, on 24th December 2012 for financial disincentive
on Broadband Service operators for non-compliance with the benchmark for the
Quality of Service Parameters.

To protect the interest of consumers relating to metering and billing, TRAI had issued
the Quality of Service (Code of Practice for Metering and Billing Accuracy)
Regulations, 2006, which mandates yearly audit of the metering and billing system of
the service providers through qualified empanelled auditors. The service providers
are required to submit an audit report duly certified from the empanelled auditors
by 30th June of every year. The service providers are also required to file with TRAI
by 30th September of every year action taken report on the deficiencies pointed out
in the audit reports by the auditors.

The framework for redressal of grievances of telecom consumers was also reviewed
to improve the effectiveness of complaints redressal for the telecom consumer by
the service provider. TRAI had notified the Telecom Consumers Complaint Redressal
Regulation 2012 on 5th January 2012. These regulations provide for establishment of
a Complaint Centre with a toll-free “Consumer Care Number”, two-tier complaint
redressal mechanism, registering of complaints by giving a unique docket number, a
two member Advisory Committee in each of the service areas by the service provider
comprising of one member from consumer organization registered with TRAI,
publishing of Citizen’s Charter and setting up of a Web based complaint monitoring
system etc.

TRAI has also reviewed the offering and marketing of various vouchers in the market
and provision of information to consumers after activation of every voucher and
after every usage and issued The Telecom Consumers Protection Regulations, 2012
on 6th January 2012.

To address the problem of Unsolicited Commercial Communications (UCC)

effectively, TRAI had issued The Telecom Commercial Communications Customer
Preference Regulations, 2010 on 1st December 2010. In order to further strengthen
the regulatory framework and to address various implementation issues, several
amendments to the regulations and directions have been issued by TRAI, from time
to time.

TRAI has also issued The Telecommunication Consumers Education and Protection
Fund Regulations, 2007 on 15th June 2007, to enable the service providers to
transfer unrefunded money of customers lying with them to Telecommunication
Consumers Education and Protection Fund (TCEPF). The income received from the
fund is utilised to undertake programmes to educate consumers, to conduct studies
in the field of telecommunications and holding seminars, workshops etc on the
subject of consumer welfare and for educating consumers.

TRAI has been registering consumer organisations for having an interface with the
telecom consumers through regular interaction with these consumer organisations.
In this regard TRAI had recently issued the “Registration of Consumer Organisations
Regulations on 21st February 2013, for strengthening the framework for interaction
with the consumer organisations.

The Broadcasting Content Complaints Council

(BCCC) is an independent self-regulatory body set-up by the Indian

Broadcasting Foundation in 2011, in consultation with the Ministry of
Information and Broadcasting. The primary role of BCCC is to implement
self regulatory guidelines for non-news channels, including general
entertainment channels, kids channels and special interest channels.

1. The self-regulatory body has 13 members: one chairperson, four non-

broadcast members, four members from national level statutory
commissions, and four members from the broadcast industry. Retired
Supreme Court judge A P Singh serves as the chairman of the industry
body. Members representing the broadcast fraternity are: Ashok
Nambissan of MSM, Deepak Jacob of Star India, Nittin Keni of Zee
Network and Sujeet Jain of Viacom 18.

2. The guidelines have been formulated after deliberations from the

industry and the Government of India around areas such as national
interest, racial and religious harmony, ill treatment of children, social
values, sex and nudity, violence and crime, gambling, drugs, smoking,
tobacco consumption, alcohol, defamation, harm and offence. In the case
of a valid complaint, the respective channel is asked to provide their view
on the offending content within one working week of receipt of a letter from
BCCC. Post evaluation of the channel’s response, if the BCCC committee
is not satisfied, it has the power to pass a directive asking necessary
modifications or withdrawal of such content, failing which, the BCCC sends
out a detailed report to the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting within
24 hours.

3. In a recent development, BCCC presented a report to the Ministry of

Information and Broadcasting, recommending heavy fines in accordance
with the degree of violation of advisories. In an official communiqué
released by the BCCC, Justice A P Singh, chairman, BCCC, was quoted
saying that about 50 per cent of the complaints received by the council
relate to sex and obscenity, especially in American serials. Reacting to
BCCC’s claim, Anand Chakravarthy, business head, Big CBS Networks,
says, “The BCCC is an industry body. And its job is to remind channels
about what is not acceptable in terms of content on TV. As far as the
English entertainment genre is concerned, most of the content comes from
the West. And, as we all know, it sometimes, tends to be risqué in nature.
So you can’t really help, because that’s more or less the nature of the
genre. Also, there is an audience for that kind of content. Channels cater to
their specific audiences, and there is nothing wrong in it. But, while you do
that, it’s important to not cross the line as that could backfire as a strategy.”
Manjit Singh, chairman, Indian Broadcast Federation (IBF), is of the opinion
that BCCC is doing a fairly good job of monitoring content on TV. “BCCC
was set up with the objective to aid and promote the self-regulatory practice
in the broadcast industry. Its job is to monitor content as per the guidelines
set by the IBF and Ministry of Information in a joint effort,” he maintains.
He further adds, “There is no doubt that self-regulation is the way to go for
the industry. The BCCC has some eminent personalities as members of
the council, who’re doing a very fine job of ensuring that the industry, as a
whole, is moving towards a strong self-regulation mechanism. It is good for
all stakeholders – broadcasters, advertisers, viewers and last but not the
least, the Government of India.” Janardhan Pandey, associate vice
president, Mudra Max, observes, “For broadcasters, it’s about acceptability
among their audiences that matters the most. And, one way of building that
acceptance level is by investing time and effort in producing quality content
as against controversial content, which invariably comes under the
scanner of industry bodies, and in some cases, the Government.”

4. Till 30 November 2012, BCCC had received 8,628 complaints and

suggestions, including 1,072 ‘specific complaints’. So far, BCCC has issued
seven advisories to member channels on different topics of concern. It is
critical for the industry to practice self-regulation to ensure smooth growth
in years to come, opine industry watchers.

(Read more at: http://www.campaignindia.in/article/all-about-bccc/418089)

About NBA

The News Broadcasters Association (NBA) represents the private television news & current
affairs broadcasters. It is the collective voice of the news & current affairs broadcasters in India .It
is an organization funded entirely by its members.

The NBA has presently 23 leading news and current affairs broadcasters (comprising 62 news
and current affairs channels) as its members. The NBA presents a unified and credible voice
before the Government, on matters that affect the growing industry.
 objectives of the News Broadcasters Association (NBA)

 To promote, aid, help, encourage, develop, protect and secure the interests of the News
Broadcasters in the Indian television Industry and other related entities.
 To promote awareness about the latest developments in the television industry relating to News
Broadcasting and to disseminate knowledge amongst its members and the general public
regarding such developments.
 To provide for the members a place of meeting so as to enable them to work in consensus to
achieve common goals for the overall betterment of their industry and to have a common
platform/forum at which they may air their grievances and arrive at solutions.
 To promote the growth of friendly relations amongst the members and amongst persons
engaged in the production and broadcasting of the television software and especially to
encourage co-operation among the members so as to maximize mutual benefits.
 To protect all its members from persons or entities who carry on unfair and/or unethical practices
or who discredit the television industry.
 No objects of the Company will be carried out without obtaining prior approval/ NOC from the
concerned authority, wherever required.
 None of the main objects shall be carried out on commercial basis.