Raghu Menon top official at information and broadcasting ministry

Raghu Menon, a former chief managing director of Air India, has taken over as secretary in the information and broadcasting ministry.

Menon, a 1974-batch IAS officer from the Nagaland cadre, replaces Sushma Singh who retired in May. Culture Secretary Jawahar Sircar was holding additional charge as secretary in the I&B ministry till Menon was appointed Monday.

Menon is no stranger to the world of media and entertainment as he had served as joint secretary for five years and then as additional secretary for a year at the information and broadcasting ministry.

Evolving consensus over the contentious broadcast code and dealing with a diverse media environment, specially at a time when the industry is reeeling under recession, will top the priorities of Menon, official sources said here Wednesday.

The ministry's budget putlay has registered a 27 increrase from Rs 2025 crore 2008-09 to Rs 2568 crore.

The plan allocation for the ministry has been set at Rs 800 crore, which includes Rs 519 crore for the broadcasting sector, Rs 66 crore for the information sector, Rs.60 crore for the film sector and Rs 155 crore for Commonwealth Games and related programmes.

The government has given special attention has to Jammu and Kashmir and northeastern states in the budgetary outlay. A new scheme has been introduced for setting up of high power TV and FM transmitters in border areas and low power FM transmitters in Jammu and Kashmir to counter Pakistani propapganda in these areas.

Last updated on Jul 8^th, 2009 at 23:14 pm IST--IANS