[by Cerius Shah] Rajat Sharma’s Independent News Service Private Limited (INS), which is the holding company for India TV, has sold of 20% stake to Banglore based Shyam Equities Pvt Ltd. The deal is reportedly worth Rs 1 billion, taking INS’s valuation to Rs 500 crore, up 86% from 270 crore nine months ago. Considering Shyam Equities is an Indian entity, the FDI limit for news channels won’t apply.

According to this Indiantelevision.com report, the flush of funds is expected to be used in launching new channels, distribution in international markets and non-news and non-television media.

India TV is also distributed via Idea over GPRS. On BSNL it ranks close to Aaj Tak and amongst the top 4 in North and East in a bouquet of around 10 channels and is giving the Hindi news leader a tough fight for top spot on air as well.

Fuse+ Media, an entity of ComVentures (now called Velocity Interactive Group), had invested an equivalent of Rs 509 million of FDI in INS for a 19.17 per cent stake in March last year.