PBSHABD: Prasar Bharati Free News Feed Serves 3,600 Outlets

The correct answer is Prasar Bharati, India's public service broadcaster. PBSHABD is its free news feed, and the very name carries the parent body in it, since it expands to Prasar Bharati - Shared Audio-Visuals for Broadcast and Dissemination. The service grew out of the broadcaster's own internal wire, the Prasar Bharati News Service, and it draws on the same correspondents and desks that feed bulletins on Akashvani and Doordarshan. Option A names a news agency that is not connected with this platform. Option C is the government's own publicity arm, which issues press releases rather than running this multimedia feed. Option D is a training and research institution in mass communication and has no role in running the service. The ministry in charge of the launch was Information and Broadcasting.

The correct answer is March 2027. Free access has been stretched in steps rather than granted once and for all, which is exactly what makes this a favourite question. When the platform completed a year of operation, free access was extended to March 2026, and it was later extended again, this time up to March 2027, so media organisations can plan their use of the feed with some certainty. Option A is the month in which the first extension was announced, not the date up to which the service is free. Option B was the earlier assurance and has since been superseded, so it is the classic trap for a candidate who has read an older report. Option D is simply beyond anything announced. The service charges registered users no subscription fee for what they download.

The correct answer is that the content carries no logo and needs no credit line. This is the feature that sets the platform apart from a conventional news agency, because a small newspaper can run a national or international story under its own masthead without attributing it to the broadcaster. Option A reverses that rule. Option C is wrong because the feed offers news in 15 Indian languages and under nearly 50 news categories, in five formats covering text, video, audio, photographs and infographics, which is what makes it useful to regional newsrooms. Option D is wrong because registration is open to newspapers and journals holding a valid RNI certificate, to television and radio stations holding uplink and downlink certificates, and to digital publishers who submit a copy of their PAN. Each organisation gets one login to share within its newsroom.