Kathmandu, Feb 3: Minister for Communications and Information Technology, Gokul Prasad Baskota, has announced that the Nepal Television (NTV)'s World English Channel would be launched within the current fiscal year.

In his address to a programme organised today on the occasion of NTV's 35th anniversary, the Minister directed the NTV management team to gear up for the project launch by taking it as a new initiative to the promote the nation's image.

He pledged to make sure all sorts of required assistance and budgetary arrangements for the same.

At present, the NTV operates five channels. Stating the NTV along with the National News Agency (RSS), Gorkhapatra Sansthan and Radio Nepal were not government media houses, they were the State's resources and assets, instead, the Minister underlined the need of changing perception towards such media houses.

He took time to call NTV employees and journalists to prove them busy bees as expected by the Prime Minister to secure progress and new achievement every day. He congratulated the NTV for the launch of Itahari Channel few days back, marking its 35th anniversary. "The NTV remaining as the first television channel in the country has challenges for proving itself as the first choice of people and viewers," he added.

The Minister congratulated the NTV management for its move towards the achievement of set goals of its commercial activities He expressed his hope the organisation would survive ahead as it was not likely to face economic crisis.

He insisted that the NTV needed to win people's heart through its best service by focusing on service expansion for increased people's access. He highlighted the need of coping with a challenge for workforce management, the issue facing almost all government-related organisations.

NTV Executive Chair Mahendra Bista said planned-wise efforts aimed to ensure more access to NTV services and improvement on its contents were going on. Variations had been ensured on presentation style and contents. NTV's mobile app launched On the occasion, Minister Baskota launched a mobile app.

It has features such as Live TV, TV Show, Video on Demand and News Features among others. On the occasion, employees serving NTV more than 20 years and 30 years were feted while awards were distributed to the journalists and administrative staffers deemed the best ones for their services. Engineering Department Chief Chintamani Baral was feted in recognition of his contribution to digitizing the service in the organization.

Similarly, News Director Raju Silwal was also awarded as the best employee of the year with cash prize bearing the purse of Rs 55,000. On the occasion, a souvenir was launched. Present in the event were Prime Minister's Press Advisor Surya Thapa, Secretary at the Ministry of Communication and Information Technology Deepak Subedi and former Chairpersons of NTV and Chiefs of all the State-owned media houses among others. Formally established on January 30, 1985, NTV so far has launched five HD channels namely NTV, NTV Plus, NTV News and NTV Kohalpur so far.