The Ministry of Information & Broadcasting framed guidelines and criteria for Empanelment of suitable agencies and Rate fixation for advertisements on websites aimed to devise principles and instruments to streamline the release of Government advertisements on websites. The policy emphasizes that only websites which are owned and operated by companies that are incorporated in India will be considered for empanelment by Directorate of Advertising & Visual Publicity (DAVP). However, websites owned by foreign companies/origin can still be empanelled if such companies have branch offices which are registered and operating in India for at least one year.
The policy stipulates eligibility criteria for websites to get empanelled with DAVP which includes Unique Users (UU) per month data, which shall be cross-checked and verified by internationally accepted and credible third party tool that monitors website traffic in India. The policy requires that the websites shall run the Government ads through a Third Party Ad Server (3-PAS) engaged by DAVP for providing all relevant reports linked with online billing and will be used for verification of bills for payment. The Unique User Data of each empanelled websites will be reviewed in first week of April every year. The guidelines categorises the Unique User per month data of the websites into three categories which is mentioned below.
Category | Unique Users per month |
A | 5 million and above |
B | 2 million to 5 million |
C | 0.25 million to 2 million |
-Press Information Bureau