NEW DELHI: Jingles and short film competitions are being held for current staff and former employees of Prasar Bharati to mark twenty years of the pubcaster.

All staff members have been asked to send in their nominations by 10 November 2017.

A statutory autonomous body established under the Prasar Bharati Act 1990, it came into existence on 23 November 1997.

Although the Prasar Bharati (Broadcasting Corporation of India) Act was passed in mid-1990 when P Upendra was the Minister of Information and Broadcasting, a decision to notify it and bring it into existence was taken by then I and B Minister S Jaipal Reddy in September 2017.

Prasar Bharati had been conceived as a trust known as Akash Bharati in the report prepared by a committee headed by the late renowned media person B G Verghese in 1978 focused on autonomy for broadcasting in India. The committee had been set up at the instance of then I and B Minister L K Advani.

However, it was passed as a corporation under the Prasar Bharati (Broadcasting Corporation of India) Act in mid-1990.

This year is also important as Prasar Bharati has for the first time shifted to its own premises, adjoining Doordarshan in Copernicus Marg in New Delhi. Until now, it had been a tenant in the PTI Building on Sansad Marg (Parliament Street), just opposite Parliament House Annexe.

After Prasar Bharati came into formation, both All India Radio and Doordarshan came under its ambit.

These public service broadcasters had till they functioned as media units under the Ministry of I and B.