Rajya Sabha TV to debut on November 7

Rajya Sabha TV will be a 24 hour channel which will broadcast live proceedings of the upper house

The Government of India is all set to roll out Rajya Sabha TV, which will debut with a soft launch on November 7.

It is learnt that the channel will be headed by Gurdeep Singh Sappal, chief executive officer. Currently, Sappal is OSD (officer on special duty) to Hamid Ansari, the Vice-President of India.

The soon to be launched Rajya Sabha TV has been modelled on the lines of the government's existing channel for the lower house, Lok Sabha TV (LSTV). Rajya Sabha TV will be dedicated to the coverage of live broadcast of all the happenings of the upper house.

In 2006, the Government of India replaced the existing channel, DD Loksabha, with the 24 hour LSTV. The channel is owned and operated by the Lok Sabha. The motive behind launching LSTV was to provide Indians easy and ready access to minute-by-minute proceedings of the lower house of the government.

LSTV broadcasts live proceedings of the Lok Sabha. When the upper house is not in session, the channel airs various cultural and educational programmes replete with panel discussions and interviews.

As is the case with LSTV, Rajya Sabha TV, a 24 hour channel, will also be available in both English and Hindi. The channel will also make available the proceedings of the upper house in five other regional languages, including Malayalam, Tamil, Gujarati, Oriya and Urdu.

The multiple language feed of Rajya Sabha TV aims to ensure that the daily happenings comprising question hour and other minute-to-minute proceedings of the Rajya Sabha reaches a wider set of the audience.