[cr-india] INFO: Educational radio in India...

[Frederick Noronha]

"For the present", the Government of India has allowed only the Indira
Gandhi National Open University (IGNOU) -- under the Ministry of Human
Resource Development -- to run FM radio stations for educational
programmes in India.

This was stated in reply to Rajya Sabha starred question Number 402
presented in Parliament in New Delhi on August 12, 2002. The question
raised queried whether the Government has "received proposals from
universities or deemed universities to run educational low-powered FM
radio stations in the country". 

Replying in the positive (that applications had been received), the
Minister of Information and Broadcasting, Ms Sushma Swaraj, said that the
present policy was only to permit IGNOU to set up such broadcasting
centres. 

She quoted information received from the GoI's Ministry of Human Resources
Development to say that IGNOU stations have been commissioned at
Allahabad, Bangalore, Visakhapatnam, Coimbatore, Lucknow and Mumbai
(Bombay). She said the "seventh station at Bhopal is likely to be
commissioned shortly".

In addition, Swaraj said 23 more (IGNOU) stations are "likely to be
commissioned during the (financial) year 2002-2003", meaning before
March-end 2003. "The remaining will be commissioned during the next
financial year," she added.

Ms Swaraj informed that a provision of Rs 15.10 crore (Rs 151 million) had
bee made during the year 2001-02 for this purpose.

If you need a copy of this parliamentary question, just drop a
line. Needless to say, educational radio has immense potential for a
country like India. FN