Amit Khare back as I&B secretary, five months after he left

Amit Khare is back as Secretary at the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting, a few months after he left. The government announced the appointment on 26 April. Khare replaces Ravi Mittal, who will now be secretary of the Sports Ministry. Khare was first appointed as I&B Secretary in 2018.

Khare has been a prominent voice in the government advocating for (self-)regulation of streaming services. In 2019, he led two closed door discussions with the industry on content regulation in Mumbai and Chennai, underlining the government’s stand that streaming services need boundaries. “It cannot be said that this is my individual creativity that I will show parts of Maharashtra in Karnataka and parts of Karnataka in some other country. It cannot be left to your creativity,” he said in the Mumbai discussion.

So far, the Internet and Mobile Association of India has rushed to placate the I&B Ministry, proposing a self-regulatory content court of sorts called the Digital Content Complaints Committee. But most industry players have been against its constitution, and after a contentious series of meetings, the IAMAI agreed to get industry consensus on the path forward before presenting anything to the ministry. Medianama