Govt allows Indian editions of foreign magazines

Prominent international news and current affairs magazines like Forbes, Fortunes, News Week, Business Week etc. those are usually available in Indian market at higher rate will now become cheaper as the government on Thursday allowed Indian publishers to publish the foreign magazines with or without adding local contents and advertisements with the support of Foreign Direct Investment (FDI).

For facilitating cheaper availability of foreign magazines, the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting has issued a set of guidelines for Indian and foreign publishers to publish foreign magazines under the framed guidelines.

According to the latest issued guidelines, publishers can publish the Indian editions of foreign magazines by attracting a maximum 26% FDI. “The ceiling of total Foreign Direct Investment (which includes foreign direct investments by Non-Resident Indians (NRIs), Persons of Indian Origin (PIOs) and portfolio investments by recognised Foreign Institutional Investors (FIIs), together is up to 26%,” the guidelines say.

Among the board of directors, the applicant company must have at least three quarter of the directors of resident Indians while the company would have to deploy only resident Indians on the posts of all key executives and editorial desk, added guidelines.

In terms of the eligibility of the magazine to be published, the guideline says that the title of the magazine must be verified and registered in the office of Registrar of Newspapers for India (RNI) under the Press and Registration of Books Act, 1867 and that (the proposed magazine) should have been published continuously for a period of at least 5 years while in the last financial year, it should have a minimum circulation of at least 10,000 paid copies in the country of its origin, which must be certified by government regulatory body or by respected and recognised agencies engaged in the business of certification.

For the publishers, the guidelines say, the publishers or entities willing to publish foreign magazines should have sound qualification, recognition and prestige as well as must be registered as an Indian company with the Registrar of Companies under the provisions of the Indian Companies Act, 1956.

Guidelines have, however, allowed the publishers to make the content ‘original’ or to add Indian contents and advertisements. Besides, the Indian companies would have the authority to enter into financial arrangements like royalty payment arrangements with the owners of the foreign magazines.