So even as the `casual' and better-known newsreaders sit watching, waiting for the allocated five minutes when they will read the news, these IIS officers will be playing host. The four additional directors/news editors/assistant news editors identified for the Hindi bulletins are Manoj Pandey, Atul Tiwari, Priya Kumar (daughter of Cabinet Secretary Prabhat Kumar) and Dharini Misra. In English, the anchors will be Muthu Kumar, Sitanshu Kar,Akshaya Rout, and Anupama V Chandra.

The sports segment will be anchored by Atul Tiwari and Abhishek Dayal in Hindi and Biswajit Bhattacharya and Natasha Sharon de Souza in English. The business segment in English will be handled by Kapil Kumar and Alok Deshwal.

Having solicited outside help for all its current affairs programmes so far -- primarily from journalists and celebrities -- this is the first time DD News is turning inwards for something that is more than a news bulletin. But clearly funds are tight. The same Central Production Centre (CPC) set used for news will double as the backdrop for this one-hour news segment, which will require very hasty work on the part of the newsreaders, as the 8.45 pm English bulletin ends at 9 pm.

The new plan was unveiled today at a meeting of producers and newsreaders at the CPC.