National Broadcasting Day is annually celebrated on 23rd July in India to commemorate the establishment of the Indian Broadcasting Company (IBC), a Bombay (now Mumbai, Maharashtra) based private radio station, which came into existence on 23rd July 1927.
- The year 2023 marks the 96th Anniversary of the establishment of the All India Radio (AIR), which was formerly known as IBC.
- In June 1923, the Radio Club of Bombay made the first-ever broadcast in India.
This day also aims to celebrate the radio, which served as the only broadcasting medium before Television for both News and Entertainment.
Background:
i.Radio broadcasting began in India under British rule in 1922 with programmes by the Bombay Presidency Radio Club.
ii.The journey of the AIR started on 23rd July 1927 as a private company called the Indian Broadcasting Company Ltd (IBC) and this is the reason for celebrating the National Broadcasting Day on 23rd July.
iii.IBC went into liquidation on 1930 following which, the British government in India took over the broadcasting facilities and established the Indian State Broadcasting Service (ISBS).
iv.In April 1930, the ISBS, under the Department of Industries and Labour (now called the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting), began its operations on an experimental basis. On June 8, 1936, the ISBS became All India Radio (AIR).
v.At the time of independence from the British Raj, there were 6 radio stations in India, at Delhi, Bombay, Calcutta (Now Kolkata, West Bengal), Madras (now Chennai, Tamil Nadu), Tiruchirapalli (Tamil Nadu) and Lucknow (Uttar Pradesh).
- There were 3 in Pakistan (Peshawar, Lahore and Dacca).
- FM (Frequency modulation) Broadcasting began in Chennai on 23 July 1977.
About All India Radio (AIR):
i.AIR, one of the largest broadcasting organisations in the world in terms of the number of languages of broadcast, the spectrum of socio-economic and cultural diversity it serves.
ii.All India Radio (AIR), formerly known as ‘Akashvani‘ (meaning Voice from the Sky in Sanskrit) since 1957, is India’s largest national public radio broadcaster and a division of Prasar Bharati.
iii.It is the sister service of Doordarshan, an Indian television broadcaster owned by Prasar Bharati.
iv.Rabindranath Tagore renamed the Indian State Broadcasting Service (ISBS) All India Radio in a poem written for the inauguration of Calcutta’s shortwave service as Akashvani, the voice that comes over from the skies.
- The name ‘Akashvani‘ was derived from the poem by Rabindranath Tagore, which he wrote for the inauguration of the Calcutta shortwave service in 1939.
v.The home service of Akashvani comprises 479 broadcasting stations across India and broadcasts in 23 languages and 179 dialects, covering nearly 92% of India’s area and 99.2% of its population.
vi.The motto of AIR is ‘Bahujan Hitaya : Bahujan Sukhaya’ (meaning ‘for the happiness and welfare of all in Sanskrit) has been serving to inform, educate and entertain the people since its inception.
About Prasar Bharati:
It is a statutory autonomous body established under the Prasar Bharati (Broadcasting Corporation of India) Act, 1990 and came into existence on 23rd November, 1997
CEO– Gaurav Dwivedi
Headquarters– New Delhi, Delhi
