[cr-india] {CRF India} Re: Centre sends right signal to the Cuddalore’s flood-affected

Mon Dec 14 04:40:59 CST 2015

With all due respect, I think the policy about refusing foreign aid during
national calamities refers to bilateral aid.  Over the years, various
high-ranking government officials have gone on record asking for loans from
multilateral agencies such as the World Bank and ADB to rebuild
disaster-hit areas of the country.

But, at a larger level, in terms of support to the CR sector generally,
some of the organizations that have played a significant role in its growth
in the country include: CEMCA, Ford Foundation, UNESCO, and UNICEF.  Out of
these, FF as a foundation is described, perhaps, as an INGO, while the
others are multilateral agencies of which India is a full member-partner.
And, from what I understand, CEMCA was set up through an agreement between
GoI and COL. If CEMCA has been able to do such good work to support CR in
India over the years despite its 'international' tag, I don't see any
reason why that tag should be thrown at UN agencies and argue against their
involvement in community radio in India.  Let us just go beyond
name-calling of organizations such as the ones I mentioned and get on with
our work. If radio stations have been benefiting from their association
with these agencies, there's no reason to thwart that now in the name of
some misplaced or misdirected nationalism.

Of course, this is all independent of the fact that Government of India has
no qualms about seeking public or private funding from other countries for
a variety of their pet projects.  Japanese aid to the new bullet train
project is a case in point!

best,
Vinod

On Thu, Dec 10, 2015 at 5:46 PM, sreedher ramamurthy <r.sreedher at gmail.com>
wrote:

> The Govt of India whether it is UPA or NDA has taken a policy decision
> that it will not encourage foreign aid during national calamities. It is
> the army, navy, airforce, ndrf which manages these calamities.
>
> When people wanted to set up a CR station with UNESCO assistance, the govt
> did not give permission. But when an Indian organization offers to run a
> station with an Indian company giving technical support,  the approval was
> given r fast. In fact such temporary licenses are known in Cr sector ,
> first Anna university, then at Guwahati and later at Port Blair.  WPC has
> been giving temporary licenses. It is a very simple procedure. It hurts
> when foreign donors or organizations poke their nose.
>
> sreedher
>
> Dr. R. Sreedher
> Media expert and Community Radio Practitioner
> Emeritus Professor Apeejay Stya University, Sohna India
> B 1/ 43 Hauz Khas
> New Delhi 110016
> Phone: +91 *9810778459*
>
>
>
> On 10 December 2015 at 07:11, sreedher ramamurthy <r.sreedher at gmail.com>
> wrote:
>
>> Don't claim astronomical credits to CR Forum. It is to the credit of
>> Tamilnadu government, and Nelson who was interested in community radio
>> right from 2004 and to the WPC. At the most CR forum might have played a
>> supplementary role. This is what irritates people. The cause is more
>> important than the person.  What is the difference between amma, AIDMK,
>> Kalignar DMK , BJP , Congress and CRF ? Are we taking the same path as
>> politicians by pasting stickers for some donations given by unknown people?
>> What is the difference between pasting amma stickers and claiming it as her
>> effort, and CRF claiming it as its success. Where is CRF all these days?
>> What is the legal standing of CRF? I am a member and i don't know whether
>> any General body meeting was ever held for the past three days? What are
>> its activities? Have they submitted their mandatory reports like annual
>> report and financial statement to the Registrar of Societies? When it is
>> now illegal entity and claiming its success is a mockery of the whole
>> system.
>>
>> Dr. R. Sreedher
>> Media expert and Community Radio Practitioner
>> Emeritus Professor Apeejay Stya University, Sohna India
>> B 1/ 43 Hauz Khas
>> New Delhi 110016
>> Phone: +91 *9810778459 <9810778459>*
>>
>>
>>
>> On 10 December 2015 at 03:17, Arti Jaiman <arti at trfindia.org> wrote:
>>
>>> An achievement CR Forum and the entire CR sector should be proud of.
>>>
>>> More power to radio.
>>>
>>> Arti
>>>
>>>
>>> Sent from a phone. Please ignore typos.
>>>
>>> On Thu, 10 Dec, 2015 at 12:16, Sajan Venniyoor
>>> <venniyoor at gmail.com> wrote:
>>> [*Thanks to Jean Parker for this link
>>> <http://www.thehindu.com/news/national/tamil-nadu/centre-sends-right-signal-to-the-cuddalores-floodaffected/article7967369.ece?utm_source=RSS_Feed&utm_medium=RSS&utm_campaign=RSS_Syndication>*
>>> ]
>>>
>>> Centre sends right signal to the Cuddalore’s flood-affected
>>> <http://www.thehindu.com/news/national/tamil-nadu/centre-sends-right-signal-to-the-cuddalores-floodaffected/article7967369.ece?utm_source=RSS_Feed&utm_medium=RSS&utm_campaign=RSS_Syndication>Makeshift
>>> radio station set up in Cuddalore within five days of receiving SOS from
>>> Chennai.
>>>
>>> As the focus shifts to relief and rehabilitation in rain-ravaged
>>> Chennai, it is perhaps the first time that the Central government has
>>> helped facilitate the setting up of an emergency community radio station
>>> within five days of receiving an SOS, at Cuddalore, 180 km away.
>>>
>>> 107.8MHz, offering listeners’ services related to relief in this
>>> flood-affected town, became operational at 5 p.m. on Wednesday. *The
>>> Hindu* had reported on Tuesday how thousands of residents have been cut
>>> off by waters.
>>>
>>> The setting up of the radio station once again brings into sharp focus
>>> the need for communication services to be set as part of emergency protocol
>>> which in this case, was expedited due to some quick thinking by the
>>> Ministry of Communication and Technology’s Wireless Planning and
>>> Coordination Unit. Usually, the decision of awarding frequencies to
>>> community radio is a process that can take days to months.
>>>
>>> In the past, requests for emergency radio services have been made during
>>> the Kosi flood in 2008 and the rains that wreaked devastation in
>>> Uttarakhand two years ago, for setting up radio stations on a temporary
>>> basis to address local issues and help in relief.
>>>
>>> The district administration had underlined the importance of community
>>> radio in emergency situations. The National Disaster Management Authority
>>> was also part of the discussions. But nothing came of it.
>>>
>>> *Team effort*
>>>
>>> This time round, as a submerged Chennai sent an SOS, processes for
>>> setting a radio station worked fast. The Broadcasting Engineering
>>> Consultants India Ltd. (BECIL), a public sector enterprise which provides
>>> consultancy services to the entire gamut of radio and television services,
>>> moved in with expertise after a local NGO Saranalayalam sounded them out on
>>> December 4.
>>>
>>> The Tamil Nadu government gave the permission to the NGO after which the
>>> Community Radio Forum initiated the process of seeking a frequency which
>>> was given on December 5 by the Telecom Ministry. Mr. John Nelson dropped a
>>> mail to the senior deputy wireless administrator in the Ministry at 11 pm
>>> which was responded to by 1 am the following day.
>>>
>>> BECIL moved its transmitter by road from Benagaluru, and on Tuesday
>>> night, the process of setting up a radio station began literally at 12.30
>>> pm in the Cuddalore Collector’s office where basic Internet and telephone
>>> services were provided.
>>>
>>> With the help of the Public Works Department, materials like lightning
>>> arrester were put in place. The antenna came up at 10 pm and test
>>> transmission started soon.
>>>
>>> “The Collector wants us to continue our services 24 hours a day till
>>> relief reaches everyone,” Mr. Nelson, who is running the radio now, said
>>> from Cuddalore.
>>>
>>> A 20-second announcement is played over and over on 107.8 FM. The-set
>>> up, Mr. Nelson said, is extremely basic but sufficient to start with.
>>>
>>> The radio station is in the process of building a partition to separate
>>> the recording place from the broadcasting studio and work is on to fix the
>>> antenna.
>>> ------------------------------
>>>
>>> http://www.thehindu.com/news/national/tamil-nadu/centre-sends-right-signal-to-the-cuddalores-floodaffected/article7967369.ece?utm_source=RSS_Feed&utm_medium=RSS&utm_campaign=RSS_Syndication
>>>
>>> jean
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> Join the Community Radio Forum.
>>>
>>> --
>>> You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google
>>> Groups "CRF India" group.
>>> To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send
>>> an email to crf-india+unsubscribe at googlegroups.com.
>>> To post to this group, send email to crf-india at googlegroups.com.
>>> Visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/crf-india.
>>> For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
>>>
>>
>>
> --
> You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups
> "CRF India" group.
> To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an
> email to crf-india+unsubscribe at googlegroups.com.
> To post to this group, send email to crf-india at googlegroups.com.
> Visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/crf-india.
> For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
>

-- 
Dr. Vinod Pavarala
Professor of Communication &
UNESCO Chair on Community Media
Sarojini Naidu School of Arts & Communication
University of Hyderabad
Gachibowli, Hyderabad 500046
Phone: +91-40-23135501/23011553
http://www.commuoh.in/
http://www.uccommedia.in/
http://www.communityradioindia.org/
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://mail.mail.sarai.net/pipermail/cr-india_mail.sarai.net/attachments/20151214/0f82c10c/attachment.html>