The government today issued guidelines for publication of local editions of foreign magazines by Indian publishers in the news and current affairs arena. A decision to ease restrictions on inclusion of local content and advertisement was cleared by the Cabinet in September this year.

These guidelines are for the publication of Indian editions of foreign news magazines by Indian entities with or without any foreign investment, an official statement said.

“The ceiling of total Foreign Direct Investment (FDI), which includes investments by non-resident Indians, Persons of Indian Origin (PIOs) and portfolio investments by recognised Foreign Institutional Investors (FIIs), is up to 26 per cent, according to the provisions of the FDI guidelines issued by the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting (I&B) from time to time,” the statement said.

This move is aimed at giving a boost to the magazine industry and the readers access to foreign news magazines at much lower prices.

Several Indian publishers have been looking at launching the local editions of foreign magazines for a long time.

Currently, the India Today group distributes the international edition of ‘Fortune’ magazine, while the Anand Bazar Patrika (ABP), the publisher of the ‘The Telegraph’ newspaper, is going to launch the Indian edition of Fortune magazine. Another international news magazine, ‘Forbes’, has already announced the Indian edition in a venture with the Network 18 group. “Several other foreign news magazines like ‘Newsweek’ and ‘Business Week’ have shown interest in the past to start a local edition. They will now be encouraged to launch these publications soon,” an industry source said.

The broad parameters for granting such permission say that the publisher or owner of the foreign magazine (of which the Indian edition is proposed to be published) should have sound credentials. Only those publishers who are registered as an Indian company with the Registrar of Companies under the provisions of the Indian Companies Act, 1956, will be eligible for the permission.

“The Indian companies would be allowed to enter into financial arrangements (such as royalty payment arrangements) with the owners of the foreign magazines subject to the rules and regulations. At least three-fourth of the directors on the Board of Directors of the applicant Indian company and all key executives and editorial staff should be resident Indians...,” the guidelines said.

It further said that the proposed publication should have been published continuously for a period of at least 5 years with a circulation of at least 10,000 paid copies in the last financial year in the country of its origin.

“The period of continuous publication and circulation must be certified by the respective Governmental authority of the country, and if there is no such Governmental authority regulating such matters, the certificate should be from respected and recognized agencies engaged in the business of certification,” it said.

According to the procedure for applying, 11 copies of the prescribed application form, duly filled in, along with the requisite documents will have to be submitted to the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting along with an application fee of Rs 20,000 that will have to be deposited through a demand draft. “All new applications for publication of Indian editions of foreign magazines dealing in news and current affairs sector, shall be processed and decided in the I&B ministry on the basis of inter-ministerial consultation with the other ministries like Home Affairs, External Affairs, Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion, and Ministry of Corporate Affairs as may be required,” the guidelines said.

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