Monumental blunder

At the same time, it is difficult to question the logic of the Sethusamudram canal project, which will provide cargo ships with an easy access across the Indian Ocean without having to circumnavigate around Sri Lanka. The project not only promises to shorten the sailing distance by hundreds of miles, and therefore a cut in sea pollution levels and fuel costs, but would also generate large revenues for India. Of the 30 miles stretch of Ram Setu, ships need a mere 300 metres to cross over. With the scope of scientific techniques available today, there is no reason why the project could not be completed without causing any damage to Ram Setu.

DD Day

However, the fact remains that the quality of DD programming has gone down substantially during the last decade. This is because an unhealthy competition existed among successive Prasar Bharti director generals to earn more money than their predecessors. They found an easy way out in increasing the telecast fees, instead of making any sincere efforts to boost the revenues. After a point, producers also got fed up due to the lack of financial viability of these projects. They either compromised the quality of programming or chose to walk away.

Now, thanks to the new CEO of Prasar Bharti, B.S. Lalli, an entire generation of old policies are being reversed in an effort to restore DD to its old glory...