Bloomberg Data Service India's proposal to service media clients in India is believed to have been rejected by the Foreign Investment Promotion Board, with the information and broadcasting ministry saying such a permission would violate existing norms barring foreign news agencies from directly distributing news within the country.
However, Bloomberg's proposal to offer EBS Trader Service as an IT-enabled service in India has been approved by the government, sources said in New Delhi on Friday.
In its application to the government, Bloomberg had said it was 'not a media company at all' and operated electronic information services like data, audio and video text services in India.
"The information and data that are distributed to (our) clients through Bloomberg terminals that are located in client offices originate from outside India and are simply distributed by Bloomberg India to its clientele," it said.
The company cited changing business environment and investment climate in the country and the recent measures by government to liberalise the foreign direct investment policy to contend that 'it is now necessary to remove all restriction on media clients.'
At its meeting on January 14, the Foreign Investment Promotion Board is believed to have cleared Bloomberg's proposal for undertaking EBS Trader Service while asking it to 'strictly adhere to the letter and spirit of the approval accorded to it in 1998.'
Besides restricting Bloomberg's clients to non-media companies, the entry level conditions imposed on the company in 1998 also specify that it will not provide online news service 'which means the company's operation will be confined to online dissemination to value-added financial service to non-media clients in the country,' sources said.
They said these conditions had been imposed on the company on the specific recommendations of the I&B ministry.
In its application seeking lifting of the ban on servicing media clients, Bloomberg India has said: "DoT has approved permitted additional users to the network as per the enclosed list and this list approves the names of additional companies which include Business Standard, Economic Times, Financial Express and The Times of India.'
