Rule change to record spend: The untold story of Uttarakhand’s Rs 1,001 crore ad spree

You’re in Uttarakhand, scrolling past another government advertisement in your WhatsApp inbox. It’s a festival greeting you’ll delete without reading. A message that cost Rs 37 lakh to send to every phone in the state. Enough to buy a Toyota Fortuner.

You switch on your TV at night and see another government ad, unaware that a channel from and largely focussed on Nagaland is running the same ads for your state government. The channel gets over Rs 1 crore for ads. More than most homes would cost in your hill town.

In fact, ads alone have drained over Rs 1,001 crore from the Uttarakhand state exchequer in the last five years. Potentially more than the public money spent on mid-day meals.

Now pull this lens back. What looks like a text here, and a TV spot there comes into focus as part of a much larger picture: a publicity machine running on public money. A machine that has spent Rs 55 lakh each day. 

This is among India’s most aggressive publicity campaigns by any state government. And unprecedented for a state with a population as small as Uttarakhand’s.

But here’s what makes this story even more startling: most of this spending explosion happened after Pushkar Singh Dhami became Chief Minister in July 2021. Within months of taking office, his administration rewrote the rules that would determine which TV channels could receive government advertising money. And these adjustments were followed by an unprecedented flow of public funds to media outlets across the country.

Consider the numbers. In 2020-21, when Trivendra Singh Rawat was Chief Minister, the government spent Rs 77 crore on advertisements. The following year, after Dhami took charge, that figure jumped to Rs 227 crore – a nearly three-fold increase. Even accounting for assembly elections, the scale was massive. By 2024-25, annual advertising expenditure had reached Rs 290 crore, as per government expenditure documents spanning five years reviewed by Newslaundry.

Of the Rs 1,001.07 crore spent in these five financial years, most of the spending – around Rs 923 crore – happened in the last four financial years. Dhami was in the CM’s seat during these four years – except for around three months in 2021-22 when Tirath Singh Rawat held the post.

Television dominated the ad spree, consuming nearly Rs 402 crore over the last four years – about half the total advertising budget and a little less than the around Rs 426 crore spent if all five years are taken into account. 

The rest of the money in the Dhami years was spent on newspapers (Rs 129.6 crore), digital (Rs 61.9 crore), radio (Rs 30.9 crore), films (Rs 23.4 crore), SMS (Rs 40.4 crore), outdoor ads (Rs 49.5 crore), booklets (Rs 56 crore), and ad agencies (Rs 128.7 crore). 

Years before ad bonanza, a court order

To address the misuse of public funds on partisan publicity, the Supreme Court in its landmark Common Cause vs Union of India (2015) case set up a committee led by legal scholar N R Madhava Menon. The Menon Committee was tasked with framing principles to ensure government advertisements serve public interest rather than political agendas. Its guidelines, later upheld by the court, stressed that campaigns must be directly related to government responsibilities, presented in an objective and accessible manner, free from partisan promotion, cost-effective and efficient, and fully compliant with legal and financial norms. Together, these safeguards were meant to balance the legitimate informative role of government advertising with the need to prevent its arbitrary and political misuse.

There are several concerns that remain despite the 2015 order. 

First, states routinely publish ads outside their own territorial limits, wasting taxpayers’ money on campaigns that serve no local public interest. Second, many ads appear as advertorials disguised as news, misleading readers and amounting to paid news. Third, governments heavily advertise during elections, distorting the level playing field and giving the ruling party an unfair advantage. Fourth, the oversight body – the Committee on Content Regulation of Government Advertisements – is often accused of being toothless, as it reports to the very ministry often under scrutiny. The widespread use of politicians’ photographs on official ads, despite court restrictions, has turned public communication into personality projection, further blurring the line between state information and partisan propaganda.

Some of these concerns could have played out in Uttarakhand, where the government altered its media advertisement accreditation rules in December 2021, just months after Dhami became CM. These changes expanded the criteria for empanelment, allowing a much broader group of media channels to qualify for government advertising. 

Where previously channels needed to broadcast at least 16 hours daily and provide detailed reports on their programming, now they only needed to be licensed by the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting and operating for one year. The requirement for daily bulletins totaling 80 minutes was replaced with three bulletins of 30 minutes each. Most significantly, the verification process was simplified – instead of district officers conducting thorough assessments under District Magistrates, cable operator certificates verified by district information officers became sufficient.

The CM’s discretionary powers to grant exemptions remained unchanged.

What followed was an advertising bonanza.

Curious cases in a TV spree

In these four years, national channels received a total of Rs 105.7 crore. Among such channels, News18 India consistently topped recipient lists, with the Reliance-owned Network 18 group receiving Rs 5.69 crore in 2024-25 alone – a total of more than Rs 9.49 crore in the Dhami years. 

In the last financial year, Times Now got Rs 4.79 crore, while TV Today Network, including Aaj Tak, received Rs 4.62 crore. The year also marked NDTV’s first significant appearance as a beneficiary, earning Rs 2.88 crore – months after its acquisition by the Adani Group.

Regional channels were given a total of Rs 296.8 crore, much higher than the amount given to national channels. In fact, in 2021-22, a financial year that coincided with assembly elections, local channels alone received Rs 98 crore – nearly five times what all TV channels had received the previous year combined.

In total, 38 regional channels had received government money that year, with six channels crossing the Rs 4 crore mark and nine receiving more than Rs 3 crore each. Newslaundry looked at the top recipients and their YouTube content.

In the regional channels category, as per the information department, the state broadcaster Doordarshan received the highest amount of money. Over the past four years, Doordarshan was paid a total of Rs 31.66 crore, of which Rs 21.43 crore was disbursed in the last financial year alone.

News1 India followed with Rs 13.5 crore in ads during the last four financial years.

The channel is operated by Ashoka Productions and Communications Private Limited, with Adit Gupta and Ashok Gupta serving as the company directors. The channel's CEO is senior journalist Anurag Chaddha. 

The channel has previously broadcasted Dhami’s events live from multiple places: “CM Pushkar Singh Dhami live from Haldwani”, “LIVE from Dehradun”, “LIVE from Rudraprayag”. Even when Dhami campaigned for the BJP in Delhi, the channel aired it live. 

Speaking to Newslaundry, CEO Chaddha said, “Our channel is the most watched in Uttarakhand and Uttar Pradesh. So, getting this much advertising is not a big deal.”

Asked about the channel’s content, Chaddha said, “I believe we show the stories that viewers want to watch. We are neither one-sided against the government nor with the government. If Modi ji has reduced GST and the Chief Minister is travelling to different places, then we show that. As for broadcasting the Chief Minister live, we work the most in that state, so of course we will follow its CM. Advertisements do not influence the news.”

Close behind News1 India is the Uttarakhand channel of the Ambani-owned Network18 group. Over the past four years, TV18 UP-UK has received a total of Rs 12.94 crore.

Following in the tally is Network 10. This channel topped the beneficiary list in the election year with Rs 7 crore. And it also received the third highest ad money in total, about Rs 12.81 crore.

The channel is run by Bharat Hydel Projects Private Limited, a company with interests in construction and broadcasting. Among the company’s directors are Dr K S Pawar, who served as industrial advisor in the Trivendra Singh Rawat government, and his son, Sandeep Singh Pawar. 

Pawar and his son joined the company as directors in 2020-21 – the year the channel got over Rs 77 lakh in ad money. It got about Rs 7.7 crore the next year, Rs 84.3 lakh the next, Rs 3.36 crore in 2023-24 and Rs 89.8 lakh in 2024-25. Newslaundry reached out to Pawar for comment and sent him a questionnaire. This report will be updated if he responds.

Network 10 has several channels for different states, and its YouTube channel for Uttarakhand has around 15,000 subscribers.

On January 5, 2021, it uploaded a 30-minute video titled “Devbhoomi ke Trivendra” (Trivendra of the land of the gods), full of praise for then-CM Trivendra Singh Rawat. The anchor described him as “simple, talented, and socially inclined” since childhood, and added: “Today, Trivendra Singh Rawat has become another name for trust for the people of Uttarakhand. A leader who believes in working more than talking.” That day was also Uttarakhand’s foundation day, and Network 10 ran another segment under the headline “Aage Badhta Uttarakhand” (Uttarakhand moving ahead). It presented Rawat’s tenure as a period of political stability and growth, contrasting it with earlier years of “instability hampering development”.

The channel’s coverage treated Rawat’s every move as newsworthy – whether he harvested paddy or extended greetings on Hindi Diwas. 

Months after the first Covid wave, Network 10 aired a 25-minute video titled “Strong steps of the Trivendra government during Corona times”, insisting the government had taken “every possible measure” to provide relief. When Rawat was replaced by Tirath Singh Rawat, the coverage continued in a similar vein.

After Tirath Singh Rawat’s brief 112-day tenure, Pushkar Singh Dhami became chief minister, and Network 10 quickly shifted focus. The channel began broadcasting his programmes live and even produced a 10-minute video titled “One month of Pushkar government in Uttarakhand: CM Dhami in action”, claiming he had achieved in one month what “usually takes years”. It later aired a 25-minute compilation called “The words of CM Pushkar Singh Dhami”, praising his speech-making skills. More recently, the channel has carried videos of Dhami’s birthday greetings or festival messages.

Year-wise ads to channels, including the period when Dhami was CM.

The fourth largest ad share went to Sadhna Plus News, a Madhya Pradesh-based channel owned by Sharp Eye Advertising Private Limited. The company’s directors are Arpan Gupta, Kavita Agarwal, and Pooja Aggarwal. The channel, which has less than 10,000 YouTube subscribers, received about Rs 9.7 crore in the Dhami years. In 2020-21, it got just Rs 87.8 lakh in ads but the amount increased in subsequent years. 

In 2020–21, the channel occasionally aired uncomfortable stories for the government, such as the plight of a helpless mother seeking justice, the lack of basic facilities during the Kumbh, and Congress protests. But after Dhami’s appointment as CM, such reportage seems to have disappeared. 

Notably, there was no coverage of the Ankita Bhandari murder case on its YouTube channel – despite the case making it to the national media. (A court convicted three individuals in the case this year, including the son of an expelled BJP leader.) 

The channel gave prominent space to Dhami’s visits to Delhi, his Ram Navami celebrations, and his by-election victory from Champawat. On June 3, 2022, when Dhami won the bypoll, Sadhna Plus ran a 27-minute bulletin dedicated to it.

Newslaundry reached out to all the numbers listed on the Sadhna Plus News website. But multiple phone calls remained unanswered.

The fifth-largest share of ads was given to TV 100, which got around Rs 8.9 crore and whose YouTube channel has 1.38 lakh subscribers. It is run by Avanti Media Ltd, whose directors are Surendra Gupta, Sudhish Kumar Gupta, and Abhishek Gupta. 

The channel featured some critical reports, for example its reportage in the Ankita Bhandari murder case and its questions on health and education in the state. But in the last two years, the volume of coverage appears to have increased on Dhami’s events and visits. On completing three years in power, the channel even called him a “powerful” leader.

Newslaundry sent questions to TV 100 for comment. This report will be updated if they respond.

Time slot contracts: It’s about Uttarakhand, but outside Uttarakhand

Not all of the government’s advertising was given to channels catering exclusively to audiences in Uttarakhand.

The largest share of government ads to such channels went to Punjabi news channel Chardikla Time TV, which received around Rs 8.67 crore. The channel aired just two hours of Uttarakhand-related content daily as per a time slot contract, according to Amarjeet Singh Sartaj, the channel’s bureau chief.

Time slot contracts allow broadcasters to enter into an arrangement with journalists or production houses to let them execute programming for certain fixed hours.

Chardikla Time TV, which has over 6 lakh YouTube subscribers, is owned by Chardikla Time TV Private Limited, whose directors are Damandip Singh, Jagjit Singh Dardi, Inderpreet Kaur Dardi, and Harpreet Singh Dardi. 

On November 23, 2021, it broadcast a 23-minute Uttarakhand bulletin that carried 10 minutes of government advertisements, including 1 minute 20 seconds on ambulance services for pregnant women, 2 minutes on Covid vaccination, and 1.5 minutes on handicrafts promotion. Editorial coverage prominently featured CM Dhami, his tours, and the state’s “development” under his government. 

Newslaundry reached out to Chardikla group editor Jagjit Singh Dardi for comment. This report will be updated if they respond.

It’s not the only example of the government’s advertising reach extending beyond the state’s borders, embracing channels from Nagaland’s Hornbill TV to Odisha’s Argus to Assam’s Pratidin Times. Swaraj Express, based in Madhya Pradesh, got Rs 8.5 crore –  it merely ran a bulletin called Devbhoomi Express focussed on Uttarakhand. 

Many of these arrangements were based on similar time slot contracts. 

Nepal-1, the first Nepali-language satellite channel broadcast from India, received Rs 4.3 crore between 2020-21 and 2022-23. Uttarakhand content on Nepal-1 is provided by Pawar of Network 10. Pawar also oversees APN News’s Uttarakhand coverage – the channel pulled in Rs 6.1 crore in ads between 2020–21 and 2024–25.

Similarly, Chardikla Time TV and Raftaar Media’s Uttarakhand operations are handled by senior journalist Basant Nigam. Raftaar Media from Jharkhand received Rs 6.5 crore. But Nigam insisted that the government ads “don’t even cover the cost of running a channel”.

VIP News, also from Bhopal and run by Sharpline Network Pvt Ltd, got Rs 5.92 crore. Its Uttarakhand unit used to be managed by Sanjay Srivastava. Srivastava initially claimed he no longer managed VIP News, but added that “outside channels” are often run by Uttarakhand’s media fraternity.

Meanwhile, Hornbill TV’s Uttarakhand content is managed locally by Ajay Dhondiyal, who also has an arrangement with Bhopal-based IND 24 that pocketed Rs 4.68 crore in government ads. 

Dhondiyal explained that around 40 regional channels function this way – through agencies that prepare content, collect ad revenue, and share it with parent broadcasters. Dhondiyal defended the system: “They follow the same rules, like airing 90 minutes of Uttarakhand bulletins daily across all 13 districts. Only then are they empanelled.”

Punjab’s ANB News, managed in Uttarakhand by J Thomas, received Rs 6.21 crore over four years. Thomas said his team functions as an agency supplying news content to ANB, not as employees.

“We are the only truly Uttarakhand-based channel. Others operate from Noida or elsewhere, with just token Uttarakhand bulletins. We cover every local story. Compare our ads with what these outside channels are getting,” said Amit Sharma, who founded Dehradun-based HNN that got Rs 6.25 crore in the last four financial years.

ANI’s publishing itinerary

News agencies also received substantial payments, with ANI getting Rs 4.15 crore in 2023-24 and 2024-25. 

As per the information department’s report, an amount of Rs 2 crore was given in 2023-24 for “coverage of the chief minister and government programmes”. 

Even smaller developments linked to Dhami found space either on the news agency’s social media handles or website.

Take, for example, Dhami’s meeting with Prime Minister Narendra Modi in April 2023. At 4 am on April 2, ANI ran a story announcing that the Uttarakhand CM would meet the PM the next day. At 11 am, another story appeared: Dhami had left for Delhi to meet Modi. On April 3, ANI once again reported that Dhami would be meeting the PM, publishing the update at 10:30 am. Finally, once the meeting happened that afternoon, ANI carried another story: Dhami had met Modi and discussed issues related to the state’s development.

During this same trip, on April 4, Dhami also met other union ministers. After a meeting with Railways Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw, ANI reported: “Uttarakhand CM Dhami met Railways Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw and thanked him for various railway projects in the state.”

A similar pattern emerged during Dhami’s three-day visit to London for the Global Investors’ Summit. The first story, published on September 24, 2023, read: “Uttarakhand CM Dhami reaches the UK with a delegation to attract investors.” Two days later, ANI reported again: “CM Dhami arrives in London to invite industry leaders for the Global Investors’ Summit.” On the same day came another update: “Dhami meets industrialists in London, signs MoUs worth Rs 2,000 crore.”

Over the next two days, ANI pushed out multiple stories detailing Dhami’s activities at the summit. It even sent a reporter to cover the event.

And it doesn’t stop there. Whether it’s Dhami extending greetings on Eid or the regional festival of Harela, ANI turns it into a story and a tweet. If he attends a BJP state committee meeting to prepare for the Lok Sabha elections, it’s reported. Even his presence at the foundation stone-laying of a BJP district office in Kashipur or a bhoomi pujan ceremony for a party office in Roorkee becomes news on ANI’s wires.

In 2024-25, Rs 1.83 crore was given to the agency but it could not be ascertained how the amount was used. This is apart from the Rs 30.9 lakh the agency got to produce five ad films.

Newslaundry sent a questionnaire to ANI chief editor Smita Prakash. This report will be updated if a response is received.

Bulk SMSes, booklets

Beyond television, the government’s advertising creativity manifested in expensive digital campaigns and vanity publishing projects. SMS and WhatsApp messaging became major expenditure items. During the 2024 Harela festival, a single congratulatory bulk message sent via WhatsApp cost Rs 37 lakh. The government sent another Harela message just a month later, costing another Rs 37 lakh.

When Prime Minister Modi visited Kedarnath in November 2021, phone messages to the public cost Rs 49 lakh. Even announcing that the CM had met the PM required Rs 17 lakh in such expenses.

The government also commissioned booklets that functioned as promotional materials. “Vikalp Rahit Sankalp, Naye Irade, Yuva Sarkar” cost Rs 4.33 crore in 2021-22. “New schemes, new initiatives, decisive decisions” required Rs 8.38 crore in 2024-25. “Sankalp Sustainable Development” consumed Rs 5 crore. 

The ad factories

The government created an additional revenue stream by contracting media houses to produce advertising content. 

Over the last five years, the Uttarakhand government spent over Rs 29 crore on the production of advertisements for television, with annual spending ranging from Rs 4 crore in 2022–23 to nearly Rs 6.9 crore in 2023–24. In the Dhami years, this amount was Rs 23.44 crore.

Media houses were central to this spending. 

In 2020–21, Zee Media was paid Rs 24.78 lakh for four five-minute films, Network 10 got Rs 14.16 lakh for a similar set, News18 received Rs 75.52 lakh for 16 films, and the Sadhna Media Group earned Rs 1.11 crore for 18 advertisements. Time Media produced a Covid precautionary film featuring the chief minister for Rs 5.31 lakh.

The following years saw new players rise. News Virus Network Pvt Ltd., which runs a digital outlet in Uttarakhand, was paid Rs 76.75 lakh in 2021–22, nearly Rs 95 lakh in 2022–23, and another Rs 55.22 lakh in 2024–25. Among its campaigns was a two-minute spot titled “Uttarakhand becoming corruption-free” that alone cost Rs 22.65 lakh. 

Time Media earned Rs 26.55 lakh for five one-minute ads in 2021–22, while Sadhna collected Rs 12.39 lakh for a single short film. That year, records also show a mysterious Rs 61.95 lakh payment to someone listed as “Damaniya,” with no information on the advertisement produced. 

By 2024–25, ANI also emerged as a major gainer, billing nearly Rs 30.9 lakh for five ad videos.

The themes of these ads ranged widely: Covid-19 awareness, campaigns to welcome migrant workers back during the pandemic, and grand claims about “double engine” development. Routine events too became publicity material – such as Rakshabandhan greetings from the chief minister or highlights of the Gairsain Assembly session, the latter costing nearly Rs 8 lakh for a 120-second spot. A larger film on “state development” ran up a bill of Rs 1 crore. 

Under CM Dhami, more than Rs 1 crore went into advertisements on the Uniform Civil Code. PM Modi’s visits to Kedarnath were also packaged into multiple high-cost films, some devoted entirely to amplifying his speeches or requests to tourists. 

Monitoring hole

Since 2023-24, the government has paid private media firm Coloured Checkers Rs 2.41 crore to monitor channel coverage of Uttarakhand-related news. “The Information Department gives us channel names,” Coloured Checkers’ Vaibhav Goyal explained. “We record all Uttarakhand-related news and provide reports to the department.”

Despite the monitoring, another concerning aspect is the audience mystery surrounding many recipient channels. Despite receiving crores in advertising money, most regional channels aren’t even registered with the Broadcast Audience Research Council, making audience measurement impossible. Even though the information rules allow for channels to be empanelled and paid as per fixed rates after meeting certain criteria.

So was the government spending massive amounts to advertise on channels with unmeasurable audiences? 

Newslaundry reached out to the information department’s director Bansidhar Tiwari and deputy director Ashish Tripathi for comment. This report will be updated if they respond.

In the next instalment, read about obscure dailies getting massive ads.

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