Prasar Bharati has decided to drop all references to ‘All India Radio’ and replace it with ‘Akashvani’
New Delhi:
Public broadcaster Prasar Bharati has decided to drop all references to its radio service as ‘All India Radio’ and replace it with ‘Akashvani’, as mentioned in the law.
An internal order issued on Wednesday by All India Radio Director General Vasudha Gupta sought “compliance with the statutory provision with immediate effect”, which changed the name of All India Radio to AIR (All India Radio).
Prasar Bharati CEO Gaurav Dwivedi said, “It is a very old decision of the government, which was not implemented earlier. Now we are implementing it.”
The Prasar Bharati (Broadcasting Corporation of India) Act, 1990 mentions that ‘All India Radio’ means the offices, stations and other establishments, by whatever name called, which immediately before the appointed day, were part of the Directorate General or were subordinate to them. All India Radio of the Union Ministry of Information and Broadcasting.
The Prasar Bharati Act came into force on 15 November 1997.
“The aforesaid statutory provision which changed the name of AIR to ‘Akashvani’ may be brought to the notice of all so that the name and title are in consonance with the provisions of the Prasar Bharati Act 1990 passed by the Parliament,” the internal order said.
All India Radio was referred to as ‘Akashvani’ by the famous poet Rabindranath Tagore in a poem written for the inauguration of the Calcutta shortwave service in 1939.
The Prasar Bharati website states that a private radio station named Akashvani Mysore was established on September 10, 1935.
AIR’s home service consists of 470 broadcasting stations located across the country and broadcasts in 23 languages and 179 dialects, covering 92 percent of the country’s area and 99.19 percent of the total population.
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