From the ABU website:
Indias national television service, Doordarshan (DDI), has turned 50 with a call to win a bigger share of the cable and satellite market, Indiantelevision.com reports.
Its Director General, Aruna Sharma, said the 50th anniversary was a time for introspection to examine the role of the public broadcaster.
It was also a time to consider how DDI could penetrate the cable and satellite sector in a big way, as it had done in terrestrial TV, she said.
DDI was established on 15 September 1959 with an hour-long daily telecast from a studio in Delhi but began regular telecasts only in the 1970s.
It now operates 19 channels, accessible to more than 90 percent of people in India via more than 1,400 transmitters.
On the eve of its anniversary, Information and Broadcasting Minister Ambika Soni said the government was contemplating using ex-servicemen from the army and former policemen for the work of running television transmitters in the border areas.
She said it was important that Indian broadcasting signals should be stronger than those coming from China or Pakistan.