[cr-india] Chennai, India: Growth of community radio on the upswing

[George Lessard]

Growth of community radio on the upswing
Hindu - Chennai,India

Chennai (PTI): The growth of community radio in the country is on the
upswing and number of functional Community Radio Stations (CRS) has grown
from 27 last year to 41 today, with 38 of them located in educational
institutions, a top official of the Information and Broadcasting Ministry
said.

'The Ministry has issued letters of intent to about 129 institutions for
setting up CRS. This includes 70 educational institutions, 31 NGOs and
nine state agricultural universities among others," Esther Kar,Additional
Director General, Press Information Bureau (PIB), said in her inaugural
address at the Second Capacity Building Workshop on Community Radio here
on Tuesday.

Out of these, 21 institutions have received their Standing Advisory
Committee on Radio Frequency Allocation (SACFA) clearance and eight have
signed the Grant of Permission Agreement, she said. As a word of wisdom
for those running CRS, she said frequency was a national and "currently
somewhat limited resource" and urged them to use it "optimally."

Terming broadcast as a "hungry monster" which called for "constant, rich,
relevant and meaningful feed," she said operators can tie-up with
like-minded organaisations in the same area if they could not generate the
content by themselves.

<http://www.hindu.com/thehindu/holnus/004200902101736.htm>