Registration of newspapers goes online on Sewa Portal

The government notified the Press & Registration of Periodicals Act (PRP Act), 2023 and its Rules in its Gazette and consequently the Act has come into force from March 1, 2024.

From now on, the registration of periodicals shall be governed by the provisions of the Press and Registration of Periodicals Act (PRP Act), 2023 and the Press and Registration of Periodicals Rules. As per the notification, the office of Press Registrar General of India – PRGI (erstwhile Registrar of Newspapers for India - RNI) shall be carrying out the purposes of the new Act.

In tune with the ethos of Digital India, the new Act provides for an online system for facilitating the registration of newspapers and other periodicals in the country. The new system replaces the existing manual processes involving multiple steps and approvals at various stages which were causing unnecessary hardships to the publishers.

Minister of Information and Broadcasting Anurag Singh Thakur had launched the Press Sewa Portal, the online portal of the Press Registrar General, for receiving various applications as mandated by the new Act.