This development comes at a time when India is faced with a one-sided narrative from international media on the handling of Covid-19 pandemic

With an aim to project India’s image globally on key domestic and international issues, Prasar Bharti, the national public broadcaster is all set to launch a news channel, DD international on the lines of the BBC World.

In sync with this plan, Prasar Bharti last week floated a tender for a consultancy service to prepare a plan to launch a channel with an international presence. The invitation for Expression of Interest (EoI) was floated on May 13 for a consultancy service to come up with a detailed project report “on establishment of DD International”.

The establishment of DD International will not only project India’s story to the world on significant domestic and global issues but it would also counter the one-sided narrative.

As per by the tender, it intends to establish an internal presence of DD through bureaus, reporters, different time zones and by prioritizing geography specific streams.

The objective is to establish India’s view on significant national and global issues and to tell the India story to a global audience by making “DD International to be the “authoritative global media source on India through credible, exhaustive and accurate global news service,” Prasar Bharti CEO Shashi Shekhar Vempati was quoted by The Indian Express as saying.

He said the idea is to get a strategic roadmap in six to eight months but citing the severity of the situation posed by covid-19 threats, he added that the process will be delayed by a few weeks or months.

Speaking about the cost and structure of the channel, he said, “that has to come out of the strategy exercise” and “once we have the input, then we will tell the govt about funding” and other details.