If you grew up in 90s India, the Doordarshan logo spinning before the 9 o'clock news is burned into your memory. The broadcaster that once defined Indian television now wants something unexpected from today's generation: AI startups. Earlier this week, Prasar Bharati released a draft Expression of Interest (EOI) seeking to empanel agencies, studios, startups and technology companies for AI-enabled content — and the details are worth your attention if you build anything with AI.
01.What exactly has Prasar Bharati proposed?
The public broadcaster wants to build a panel of organisations capable of AI-assisted content creation, localisation, digital-human technologies, archive repurposing and related services — across its entire broadcast, digital and OTT ecosystem: WAVES, Doordarshan, Akashvani and DD India. It's a consultation draft, not a tender. Stakeholders have been invited to submit comments, suggestions and queries by 5 pm on September 21, 2026, before the final EOI is issued. Think of this as Prasar Bharati asking the industry, "help us design this properly" — which is itself a refreshingly open approach.
02.The nine categories you can empanel for
The draft proposes nine empanelment categories, and the range tells you how broadly the broadcaster is thinking: short-form content (30 seconds to 3 minutes), micro-dramas (1–5 minutes), music videos (2–6 minutes), intermediate series (8–10 minutes), regular series (25–30 minutes), feature films of 90 minutes or longer, archive repurposing and restoration, AI-based localisation, translation and dubbing, and — most futuristic of all — AI avatars, digital humans and virtual presenters. Applications are evaluated per category, so a small team doing brilliant localisation work doesn't need to compete with big production houses on fiction formats.
03.The archive is the real treasure
Here's the thing nobody's talking about enough: Prasar Bharati sits on one of India's largest broadcasting archives — decades of cultural, historical and journalistic material across Doordarshan and Akashvani. The draft specifically mentions AI-assisted restoration, denoising, colour enhancement, upscaling and reframing of legacy video and audio, plus metadata enrichment using standards like PBCore and Dublin Core so this content can actually be catalogued and discovered on WAVES. Imagine old interviews, classical music recordings and historical footage cleaned up and made searchable for a YouTube-first generation. For a country obsessed with its past, that's a genuinely exciting project hiding inside a government tender document.
04.No turnover requirement — seriously
Government tenders usually scare small companies away with financial thresholds. This one explicitly takes what it calls a "capability-first, turnover-agnostic" approach — no minimum turnover requirement at the empanelment stage. What matters instead is demonstrated output quality, workflow maturity, legal readiness and delivery capability. Applications are scored out of 100, with a minimum of 70 required for empanelment. The technical assessment covers things like text-to-video generation, character consistency, multilingual lip synchronisation and AI-anchor capability. A paid pilot track is proposed for emerging companies without broadcast-scale experience, so you can prove yourself with a short AI-generated sample instead of a decade-old client list. Eligible applicants include DPIIT-recognised startups, studios, animation and VFX firms, localisation companies and consortiums — though you must be registered in India with GST and PAN.
05.The India-first fine print
Two conditions deserve attention. First, applicants must disclose the AI models, platforms and APIs used in their workflows, including origin and licensing — and preference may be given to Indian-developed or open-source AI technologies and India-hosted deployments. That echoes the sovereignty push we've seen across Indian AI policy this year, from Sarvam's Indus app to homegrown model programmes. Second, if you build digital humans or avatars based on a real person's likeness or voice, you'll need a proper consent framework — and audiences must be told when a presenter is AI-generated. Frankly, that's a more mature stance on synthetic media than several private platforms have managed.
06.Read the fine print before celebrating
Now the sobering part: empanelment guarantees nothing. The EOI states clearly that it creates no obligation on Prasar Bharati to place work or commit any financial outlay. Actual assignments would come later through limited RFPs, thematic briefs, pitch requests, pilots, innovation challenges or direct work orders. So this is a door opening, not a contract signing. Still, for AI content startups — a category that struggled to find serious Indian clients with budgets — having the national broadcaster build a formal pipeline for AI work is a legitimate signal. It also comes at a moment when AI-generated content is under scrutiny worldwide; we covered how the first fully AI-generated feature film just released to mixed reviews, and standards from a public broadcaster could actually help legitimise the format in India.
Worth reading alongside this: Flam Raises $40M: Indian AI Startup's 3D Content Play and Google AI First Accelerator Picks 20 Indian AI Startups.
Key Takeaways
- Prasar Bharati has floated a draft EOI for empanelment of AI startups, studios and tech companies
- Covers WAVES, Doordarshan, Akashvani and DD India — content creation, localisation, digital humans, archive restoration
- No minimum turnover; evaluation is capability-first, scored out of 100 with a 70-mark cutoff
- Must disclose AI models used; preference for Indian-developed or India-hosted AI
- Empanelment does not guarantee work — feedback due September 21, 2026
Frequently Asked Questions
What is Prasar Bharati inviting AI startups for?
Prasar Bharati has floated a draft EOI inviting AI startups, studios and tech companies for empanelment across Doordarshan, Akashvani, DD India and WAVES.
What are the eligibility rules and deadlines?
There is no minimum turnover requirement — the evaluation is “capability-first, turnover-agnostic,” across nine categories from short-form video and micro-dramas to AI anchors, localisation and archive restoration. Industry feedback is due by 5 pm on September 21, 2026.
What This Means for You
If you're an AI-savvy student, freelancer or small studio in India, this is one of the more accessible government opportunities I've seen — the paid pilot track and zero turnover bar mean your portfolio matters more than your balance sheet. The realistic play: pick one category you're genuinely good at (localisation and archive restoration are the sleeper picks — there's decades of material and a national mission to revive it), build two or three strong samples, and participate in the feedback process before September 21 so you understand the final rules. And if your AI content skills need sharpening first, the prompting and AI-agents chapters in our GPT-6 Astra — Zero to Hero Guide will get you building professional-quality workflows well before the final EOI lands.