[cr-india] TERI launches "Kumaon Vani" community radio in Uttarakhand

[Vickram Crishna]

Aside from the fact that TERI is one of the NGOs that (I heard) faced extraordinary resistance to its plans to set up a CR station, one cannot help but be thankful to the governor for helping us understand how 2,000 villages (whether they exist in one large valley or several: I took a look at this picture http://maps.google.co.in/maps?client=safari&rls=en&q=TERI%20Mukteshwar%20Uttarakhand&oe=UTF-8&redir_esc=&um=1&ie=UTF-8&sa=N&hl=en&tab=wl to see just how big this valley could be, and if it really has 2,000 villages within 20 km of Mukteshwar. I wonder where they keep the trees. Oh silly me - fancy thinking there are any trees left!) will directly benefit from one FM station. In the mountains! 

Normally, when the government speaks about 'villages', it means a revenue village, which is an administrative area comprising several hamlets, of which one constitutes the HQ. LPFM lends itself wonderfully to managing such a scenario without wasting either energy or resources (human, time and money), by combining data networking with slave microstations (even better, and at a cost comparable if not cheaper than setting up one 'big' transmitter, give each one of them a microstudio).    

There are many studies available that show that data networking is capable of handling streaming audio, effectively enabling one 'master' station to run multiple 'slaves' on the same network (many networked companies run 'radio' locally on their LANs). Of course, our radio policy is designed to avoid major stations doing the same thing on an all-India basis, which is understandable, but has no bearing on allowing it to be done as described above. Very often, rules made to control one situation are misused to prevent the growth of alternatives, and this is one such case.  


Vickram
http://communicall.wordpress.com
http://vvcrishna.wordpress.com


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>From: sajan venniyoor <venniyoor at gmail.com>
>To: CR India <cr-india at sarai.net>
>Sent: Mon, 15 March, 2010 10:55:48
>Subject: [cr-india] TERI launches "Kumaon Vani" community radio in Uttarakhand
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>TERI launches "Kumaon Vani" community radio service in Uttarakhand
>http://www.indiatalkies.com/2010/03/teri-launches-kumaon-vani-community-radio-service-uttarakhand.html
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>Kumaon (Uttarakhand), Mar 13 : Uttarakhand Governor Margaret Alva on Saturday inaugurated the first community radio of the state, the ‘Kumaon Vani.’
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>The community radio centre which will air at the frequency of 90.4 MHz has been set up by the Energy and Resources Institute (TERI) in the Kumaon valley.
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>Over 2,000 villages in the remote areas of this Himalayan state would be benefited from the launching of Kumaon Vani, the radio service which can now be heard within 20 kilometers from the TERI centre.
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>Alva, on this occasion, said the community radio would prove to be an effective medium of communication for the people of the region to voice their concerns.
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>“The biggest thing is that the “Kumaon Vani” will run from the local community. The villagers will make the programmes, decide its content and air it. This radio will provide a platform for the local people to bring forth their issues and opinions and get a medium of discussion,” Alva said.
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>The ‘Kumaon Vani’ would air programmes on environment, agriculture, culture, weather and education in the local language and with the active participation of the locals.nnapurna, the Director of TERI in Nainital, said because the Kumaon region is disaster-prone, the community radio would act as an effective messenger and informer in times of crisis.
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>“As the area of Kumaon is disaster-prone, (and) the climatic weather conditions are very diverse from extreme heat to cold, a technology like radio will be of great use in the area,” Annapurna said.
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>The main occupation of the people of Kumaon is agriculture and thus a community radio is hoped to serve as an effective informer for farmers and will help them to gain knowledge from experts.
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>“In our programs we will take up questions from the community people, related to their problems and queries they want answers to. With the help of experts, like agriculturists, we will try and solve the problems of the people through our community radio,” said Tulsi Mehta, program coordinator of Kumaon Vani.
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>Mehta further said that through this radio station they would endeavor to preserve the diminishing culture and heritage of Kumaon valley. By Ashish Goyal (ANI)
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>Uttarakhand gets first community radio
>By: RadioandMusic.com, 12 Mar 10 
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>MUMBAI: Uttarakhand's first community radio which will cater to 15 villages was today inauguarted by Uttarakhand Governor Margaret Alva.
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>The 'Kumaon Vani', which has been set up by The Energy and Resources Institute (TERI) will benfit nearly 2000 villagers, according to agency report.
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>Alva said the community radio would prove to be effective medium of communication for the people of Uttarakhand and also play an important role in women empowerment.
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>Speaking to radioandmusic.com last year Tulsi Mehta, who has enrolled as a reporter for the station  had stated enthusiastically, “In the initial stages, we had issues with gathering people and making them understand the concept of community radio. Later on, it became a platform for singers and experts in agriculture, career options, women's issues to connect with the population.”