India Thursday modified its up-linking policies for news and current affairs channels, allowing foreign institutional investors (FIIs) up to 26 percent investment, according to Indo-Asian News Service.

The entity making the portfolio investment in the form of foreign institutional investment or will not be "persons acting in concert" with Indian investors, Indian Information and Broadcasting Minister S. Jaipal Reddy said.

They will not have to take event-based permission but can get permission for the whole year, except in special cases, he added.

On the eligibility criteria for the news and current affairs channels, he said indirect FII equity in a company as on March 31 of the year would be taken as the foreign holding.

The review exercise was undertaken to clarify some anomalies in the foreign direct investment (FDI) norms in up-linking policy.

TV channels and teleports will be permitted to uplink in Ku-band only through Indian satellites provided they do not use this approval to operate direct to home (DTH) services without proper license, the minister said.

Source: Xinhua