She also managed to get the go-ahead for cable operators to enter Internet services, and forced advertisers and private channels to draw up a code for tobacco and liquor advertising. Of course she was working hard on getting cable TV regulation and broadcasting regulation in the form of acts off her in-tray as soon as possible.

Some may say that she put the fear of the lord in foreign broadcasters by stipulating a 20 per cent cap on foreign investment in broadcasting firms. If they just listenedto her anti-foreign diatribe, without paying attention to her actions, then they have every reason to be afraid. However, they needn't be. This government talks with a forked tongue; it has to if it has to survive as a motley coalition with external support from close to a score of parties. However, time will prove it is as much a liberaliser as they come.

So far Swaraj has achieved in six months what many a past I&B minister would toil over for more than two years. She came across as a lady who meant business.

If she had continued, she would have been running a close call on pushing through the Broadcasting Act, cable TV and direct-to-home TV regulations in the coming parliamentary session. Her leaving the ministry has made many a media professional afraid that regulations will gather dust now. And they may well be right. But it will be so only for a short while. The BJP is going to come back with renewed gusto and will liberalise even further in the area of advertising, broadcasting and Internet.Reforms, once they start in these areas, will come as a deluge.

Senior leader of the BJP and its allies have to ensure this. Whoever replaces her - and the word is that it may be Pramod Mahajan - has to carry on with the same viguor. More than three-fourths of the work relating to the broadcasting act should have been completed by now under the two governments that have been struggling to have it enacted. Hence, the BJP has to ensure that it is presented in parliament in the coming session.

Two-to-three years for a piece of legislation is stretching things a bit too far. What it has meant is a loss of credibility internationally for the country's lawmakers. The BJP has to take steps to recapture it. Even if it means that some foreign companies will have to pack up and leave.

Live uplink may see marketing wars of a different kind

Is live uplinking from Indian shores going to bring to the forefront marketing wars of a different kind? And is it going to put those who are doing it from Indianshores at an advantage? Some in the industry think so and are banking on it. Normally, advertisers have a lead-time of about three-five days before they can get their ads on air on a private satellite TV channel.

Mainly because most of them are uplinked from Singapore or Bangkok or Hong Kong and couriering the tapes takes time. Now with up linking being done from Chennai or Delhi, the lead time can be cut down to just one day. Or even less, if the advertiser has cut a good deal with channel. According to one media planner, the shorter duration is going to help his client react and respond much quicker to the rival brand's advertising. Hence, he will be willing to commit a lot more resources to a channel, which is being uplinked from Indian shores.

"I'd like to be in a position to take off an ad and replace it quickly should the need arise," he says. "Earlier, the distance from Singapore created a mental block and VSNL was too expensive."

Sources, indicate, that is exactly what big-spending advertisersare going to do now. Colgate has reportedly committed a lot more resources to the Sun Network.

China clamps down on liquor, tobacco ads

So we all cribbed about Madame Swaraj cracking down on liquor and tobacco advertising. The same thing's happening in China, according to Advertising Age.

China Central Television (CCTV), the country's only national TV station, has decided that it will no longer accept commercials for liquor during its prime time advertising slot in its evening news broadcast. The station announced this decision at a seminar on the bidding process for CCTV's prime airtime, which was attended by 200 advertisers. CCTV's prime time slot is before and after 1900 hours when its daily highest-rating news bulletin is aired.

The news is watched by senior Chinese leaders. Last year a liquor firm paid $40 million for the top slot. And this year, the broadcaster let go of that extra revenue to fob off criticism that it was falling prey to the machinations of liquor advertisers.

CCTV,however, has not closed all its windows to advertisers: it has opened up 12 non-primetime slots to the booze barons for 1999. We'll have to see if they'll drink to that.

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