Union Information & Broadcasting Minister Anurag Thakur on Sunday said as part of an initiative to expand the reach of radio, the third batch of 808 channels in 284 cities would be e-auctioned soon.
At the inaugural session of the two-day Regional Community Radio Sammelan (North) Mr. Thakur conferred the 8th and 9th National Community Radio Awards on various stations.
He said currently 80% of the geographical area of the country and over 90% of the population was covered by radio. He said community radio stations played a key role in realising the vision of Prime Minister Narendra Modi of ‘Jan Bhagidari’ (public participation) and ‘Jan Andolan’ (public movement). They complimented the efforts of Akashvani.
The Minister said despite various constraints, community radio stations continued to educate the masses and spread awareness in the remotest corners of India. He said the government is trying to reduce the time taken to establish such stations.
Earlier acquiring a licence for a station took four years and involved 13 processes, the duration has now reduced to six months with just eight processes. He said the Ministry was working to reduce it further. The application process is now online on Broadcast Seva portal and is connected to Saral Sanchar portal.
I&B Secretary Apurva Chandra said the communication space had witnessed many advancements in the form of TV, Internet and now OTT, but that had not dented the popularity and reach of radio. He said the last two years had seen an addition of over 120 community radio stations taking the total to over 450 with over 100 Letters of Intent with the Ministry.
