India allows local editions of foreign news magazines

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NEW DELHI, Sept 20 (AFP): India yesterday lifted a decades-old ban on local editions of foreign news magazines, but put a cap of 26 per cent on overseas equity in such joint ventures.
The government said the much-awaited step would make foreign news publications more affordable to local readers.
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's cabinet, announcing changes to India's media policy, said domestic firms could now tie up with overseas publishing houses to print the foreign news magazines locally.
The US-based Time Inc is eager to launch a local edition of its Fortune magazine in India, which boasts of having the world's largest number of English-speaking professionals.
A copy of Fortune sells for nearly 100 rupees (2.17 dollars) in India, four times the price of a local business magazine.
The cabinet said a third of the directors as well as all senior executives and editorial staff of the joint ventures should be Indian.
"The content would be allowed to be up to 100 per cent identical to the foreign magazine concerned and the Indian publisher would be free to add local content," the official said.
The decision came three years after New Delhi opened the doors for India's domestic print sector to draw on overseas capital.
Media analysts said the relaxation could be soon widened to include foreign newspaper companies.
"This will open up the channel for foreign newspapers to set up base in India and that would revolutionise our domestic media sector," said Shivaji Sarkar of the state-run Indian Institute of Mass Communication.