But there's loads of it piled up as far as her ministry is concerned. Swaraj should set her sights on fighting for passage of the BJP version of the Broadcasting Bill in the Parliament. And the sooner she does it the better. Private satellite and cable television channels have been operating without any modern legislation for five years now. Isn't itabout time, as India gets ready for the new millenium, that they be given a rulebook on which they can base their futures? Their - especially, foreign broadcasters' - proposals for increases in equity and investment have been pending clearance for nearly two years now.

Two governments have come and gone and they have been left twiddling their thumbs. Swaraj needs to ensure that the government has a Broadcasting Act ready and passed before the winter session is over. A lot of work has been put into seeking various opinions on what broadcasting regulation should be like by the parliamentary committee headed by Sharad Pawar last year. A Bill is also in place, which was introduced in Parliament by Jaipal Reddy, the United Front's information and broadcasting minister. All Swaraj has to do is to fine-tune it based on the committee's recommendations - a task that should take no more than a couple of months, if she and her ministry put their minds to it. Not only will this bring order to what is a disoderlybusiness, it will also ensure that her name will go down in Indian history as the woman who had the courage to enact a not-too-easy and not-so-simple piece of legislation.

Channel [V] writes back

Last week's piece in this column, which tried to sound the warning that all's not well at Channel [V] has elicited a response from Star TV executive vice-president (India and the middle east) Peter Mukerjea. I have decided not to reply (time will prove me right or wrong) to it and have reproduced his response ad verbatim below: "He (Anil Wanvari) refers to viewership numbers and a survey done by a research firm etc. I'd like to invite Anil to a research presentation wherein I could show research figures which could prove exactly the opposite. That's the beauty of research, Anil.

"(Anil says) `Attracting advertisers to Channel [V] is not as easy as before.' That's hardly a revolutionary statement. In a world where supply of air-time is more than the demand for it, the advertiser will always have the edge.Also, this is true of all channels in the country and not just Channel [V]. We are currently selling more (and not giving away) of our inventory than we did last year. So, there - Anil. `Don Ateyo's retiring.' Surely people are allowed to retire! Suffice it to say that Channel [V] today is stronger than it's ever been and there's always going to be an occasional disgruntled member of staff who will complain, but life's like that - you've got to take the rough with the smooth. Channel [V] still continues to deliver good value to its clients and viewers. That's what matters."

Heil Hitler! Oops!

Indian ad agencies have had trouble with pythons and scantily clad men and women featuring in ads. Politicians have constantly been cracking down on anyone who has been featuring these in ads. Now, there's one more taboo they should add to their list - Adolf Hitler - especially if they consider what happened in Thailand, according to trade magazine Advertising Age. Ad agency Leo Burnett Thailand createda commercial for `X' potato chips made by a local company. One shot shows Hitler saluting and moving on to a woman who eats the chips and while doing so turns him into a figure of fun by resorting to voodoo. The spot ends with the Nazi swastika morphing into the brand name. Guess who was upset? The Isrealis! The Isreali embassy in Thailand stated that the commercial was disgusting. Result: Leo Burnett had to apologise and temporarily withdraw the commercial for routine production work.

The coming rivals

Animal Planet is hitting Asia on 26 June. The product of a marriage between The Discovery Channel and the Beeb, Animal Planet will offer 24 hours of documentary material revolving around animals. The launch will be pretty close to the flagoff of National Geographic Asia, a joint venture between NBC and National Geographic. The NBC is slated to go off the air in end June. National Geographic is already visible to subscribers of InCable, the cable service of the Hinduja-runIndusInd Media. But the soft launch date for the channel is set for July 1 while the official launch date is October 1. The two new debutantes will have major challenges on their hands: attracting advertisers and audiences. And, of course, outlasting each other. In wild Asia it's the survival of the fittest.

The writer can be reached at wanvari@giasbm01.vsnl.net.in or television@hotmail.com