Prime Minister Narendra Modi poses for a photo with media tycoon Rupert Murdoch and other media honcos before a round table meeting ‘Media, technology and communication – Growth story for India’ in New York on Thursday. PTI
New York: Presenting India as a technology-driven society, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday pledged protection to Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) as he met top executives of major media and communication companies here.
“This is a technology-driven era. We are a technology-driven society,” he said at a round table meeting with the top executives of companies like Comcast, Time Warner, Discovery, Sony, ESPN, News Corp, 21st Century Fox, Disney Industries, ABC television group.
The focus of the Prime Minister’s meeting with over dozen media honchos was to understand about the trends in media and communication technologies and the opportunities for India.
“We are committed to protecting IPR which is essential to fostering creativity,” Modi told them at the round table on Media, Tech & Communications.
The CEOs present included Rupert Murdoch, executive chairman News Corp and 21stCentury Fox; James Murdoch, CEO, 21st Century Fox; Robert Thompson, CEO, News Corp; John Skipper, president, ESPN; Uday Shankar, CEO, Star India; David Zaslav, president and CEO, Discovery Communications and Michael Lynton, CEO, Sony Entertainment.
Others present at the round table were Brian L. Roberts, CEO, Comcast; Michael Roth, CEO, Interpublic Group of Companies; Shane Smith, CEO, Vice Media; Martin Sorrell, CEO, WPP; Jeff Bewkes, CEO, Time Warner; Nancy Dubuc, CEO, A&E Networks; Anthony Pratt, chairman, Visy Industries; William Duhamel, Route One Investment Company and Jeff Ubben, CEO, ValueAct Capital.
US media honchos for early rollout of 4G
Describing India as the ‘biggest market’, America’s media honchos have called for speedier digitisation of the Indian system, including early expansion of the 4G network, during a one-of-its kind meeting with PM Narendra Modi.
During the meeting wherein the focus was on the role that the media and entertainment industry can play in development and generation of employment opportunities in the country, CEOs of the top media houses appreciated Modi for ‘energetic and dynamic leadership’ and expressed optimism about the future of India, a statement said.
The CEOs representing 40 per cent of the world’s entertainment industry – were enthusiastic about the digital transformation that is taking place in India through the ‘Digital India’ initiative.
They said that the current strong trajectory of the Indian economy makes it at a unique moment to accelerate growth in this sector.
“All of them said India is the biggest market for them in terms of the phenomenal growth of the entertainment channels, in terms of the youth in India wanting more such content. They asked for speedier digitisation of the Indian systems,” External Affairs Minister spokesperson Vikas Swarup told reporters.
Shane Smith for instance, said that he wanted rolling out of the 4G systems as soon as possible. This is the bandwidth that they need for their program contents to be rolled out and to reach people as fast as possible.
All the CEOs said that India is already a big market for them and they do not have any issues with the existing norms.
“What they wanted was speedier expansion of broad band infrastructure,” he said.
“The Prime Minister and CEOs observed that the changes in technology and media in recent times have led to an enormous democratisation of knowledge. He said that the world is now in a technology- driven era, where growth of digital infrastructure is as important as growth of physical infrastructure,” Swarup said.
(Agencies)
