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Tag: Bimal Julka

  • The former Chief Information Commissioner of the Government of India wil oversee the self-governance of Fantasy Sports in his new role at FIFS

    Bimal Julka to chair federation of fantasy sports

    By A Correspondent

     

    Bimal Julka

    The Federation of Indian Fantasy Sports (FIFS), the self-regulatory industry body for fantasy sports, has announced the appointment of Bimal Julka as its Chairman. In his new role, Julka will work closely with all stakeholders to further strengthen the operating standards of the Indian fantasy sports industry. Julka is taking over from John Loffhagen, who served as Chairman of FIFS for over three years. Loffhagen will assume the role of a Strategic Advisor and support FIFS on collaborating with relevant international bodies in the industry.

     

    With over four decades of service in the government at both state and national levels, Julka is an Indian Administrative Service (IAS) Officer of the 1979 batch belonging to the Madhya Pradesh cadre. He held the prestigious position of Chief Information Commissioner, Government of India, until September 2020. Prior to that, Julka has held several senior positions in the Ministry of Defence, Civil Aviation, Information & Broadcasting, External Affairs, Finance, Commerce and Public Relations in Govt. of India.

     

    Commenting on the appointment, Anwar Shirpurwala, CEO of FIFS, said: “We are very fortunate to have Mr Bimal Julka join FIFS as the Chairman. His impeccable reputation and principles of good governance precede him. Having such a senior dignitary, like Mr Julka, representing fantasy sports will strengthen the industry’s credibility, and we are sure to witness new strides towards reformations and standardisation of the rapidly growing fantasy sports industry.”

     

    Talking about the fantasy sports industry and FIFS, Julka said: “Fantasy sports is a new and disruptive industry that has great potential to strengthen and promote sports in India through meaningful fan engagement. While fantasy sports is seeing unprecedented growth in both users and operators, there arises an equal need to protect the users and promote responsible growth.  I am happy to be part of FIFS and look forward to supporting & guiding the fantasy sports industry in achieving its full potential by affirming high standards and self-regulation.”

     

    FIFS was founded in 2017 and currently has 35 members, who cumulatively account for over 99% of India’s Fantasy Sports market. Besides the members, FIFS advisory board includes 1 Ombudsman – Justice Arjan Kumar Sikri (Retd.), and four strategic advisors – Prof Ratnakar Shetty – Former BCCI Chief Administrative Officer, Amrit Mathur – Former Secretary Sports Authority of India, AN Roy – Retired Director General Police (and a former Mumbai Police Commissioner), Dilip Dixit- Former Additional Commissioner of Sales Tax and former chairman John Loffhagen who has was formerly Legal Head – IMG and Advisor.

     

     

  • The session focused on how the government could play an integral role in allaying the fears of all the stakeholders concerned

    #FF14 Day 1: Issues abound but collective stand will help boost industry morale

    By a correspondent

     

    Starting off from where the inaugural session left, the session on ‘De-bottlenecking the regulatory hurdles’ on Day 1 of FICCI Frames 2014 saw the panelists touch upon grave issues facing the industry and how the government could play an integral role in allaying the fears of all the stakeholders concerned.

     

    The panelists for the session comprised Bimal Julka, Secretary, Ministry of Information & Broadcasting, Government of India, Uday Shankar, CEO, Star India, Sudhanshu Vats, Group CEO, Viacom18 Media Pvt. Ltd, Punit Goenka, CEO, Zee Entertainment Enterprises Ltd, Rahul Johri, Sr VP & GM, South Asia, Discovery Networks and  Ajit Pai, Commissioner, FCC, USA. The session was moderated by Vikram Chandra, Group CEO, NDTV.

     

    Taking the opportunity to open up, Uday Shankar began by saying that the regulatory scenario in India was very diverse in its approach with some sectors being over-regulated while the others were under-regulated. “Lack of clarity on the intent of a regulation is something that is of concern. It has to be aligned with goals that have been set by the society”, said Mr. Shankar. He went on to highlight other issues that needed industry attention including the 10+2 ad cap provision and also the just introduced aggregator policy for stakeholders.

     

    Sudhanshu Vats presented a few indicators of his own as he said that there was a need to have a purpose to regulate. This, he said, could be achieved by having multiplicity of choice, have the need to operate like a free market and have adequate transparency and data. Adding further he said that the other essential needs were clarity, accountability and foresight.

     

    Rahul Johri pitched in by saying that there was indeed a need to have clarity on where the industry was headed on the issue of regulation and finding out what the core objective is. “We have regulated ourselves very well but there are too many regulations being imposed right now and we need to find a way to tackle them systematically. The aim should be to regulate well for the future of India.”

     

    Left to defend his turf, Shri Bimal Julka did a decent job of pacifying the panel as he said that it was a collaborative effort and that the responsibility rests with all stakeholders to get the job done. “Whatever the issues, we can agree in cohesion that it is the viewer towards whom our efforts have to be directed. Thus keeping such interests of the viewer in mind, the policies are framed with the intention of achieving inclusive growth,” he asserted.

     

    On the several impending problems facing stakeholders, Shri Julka said that the focus by the government was to throw open the field for a healthy discussion amongst all players so that they could arrive at an amicable solution. Mr. Julka asserted that despite the problems the digitization exercise was showing positive results as well including the carriage fees reporting a downward slide and more transparency being bought into the system.

     

    Mr Julka went on to add that the challenge would be to complete the phase 3 & 4 schedule of digitization and only after that could the issues of subscription versus carriage fee be resolved. But he cautioned that the stakeholders also had a role to play including deciding on how to make their content standout amongst a plethora of options facing the viewer.

     

    Sudhanshu Vats went to the extent of saying that there was no need to have a licensing system except for the spectrum allocation and that even if there is a licensing system there needs to be a fixed timeframe to address that. He added that things will be clear once the entire digitization exercise is complete but prior to that it was important that the industry take a hard look on addressability factor of digitization.

     

  • The 58-year-old former Special Secretary and Financial Advisor with the Ministry of External Affairs takes charge as MIB Secretary as Uday Kumar Varma retired yesterday

    Bimal Julka replaces Uday Varma as I&B Secretary

    By A Correspondent

     

    Bimal Julka is the new Secretary, Ministry of Information and Broadcasting with the Government of India. Mr Julka takes charge today as Mr Uday Kumar Varma retired yesterday (June 30, 2013).

     

    On Friday, June 28, the Ministry of Personnel, Public Grievances & Pensions announced that the Appointments Committee of the Cabinet (ACC) had approved the appointment of Mr Julka who was until June 30, Special Secretary and Financial Advisor with the Ministry of External Affairs.

     

    Fifty-eight year Mr Julka is an IAS Officer of the 1979 batch of the Madhya Pradesh cadre. Incidentally, Mr Varma, who turned 60 on June 20, is from the 1976 batch of the Madhya Pradesh cadre.

     

    Hence, in case there’s no change announced, Mr Julka’s stint as head of the information and broadcasting ministry secretariat should last for two years. Unlike Mr Varma who had spent a few years with I&B before taking charge as Secretary, Mr Julka has no previous experience in the ministry.