The Ministry of Information and Broadcasting is divided into four wingse., the Information Wing, the Broadcasting Wing, the Films Wing and the Integrated Finance Wing.
- Prasar Bharati (Broadcasting Corporation of India) is the public service broadcaster in the country, with Akashvani (All India Radio) and Doordarshan as its two constituents.
- It came into existence on 23rd November 1997, with a mandate to organize and conduct public broadcasting services to inform, educate and entertain the public.
- The Corporation, is governed by the Prasar Bharati Board, which comprises a Chairman, an Executive Member (also known as Chief Executive Officer), a Member (Finance), a Member (Personnel), six part-time Members, a representative of the Ministry of Information & Broadcasting and Directors General of All India Radio and Doordarshan as ex-officio Members.
- The Chairman is a part-time member with 3-year tenure subject to an age limit of seventy years.
- The executive Member is a whole time member with five-year tenure subject to an age limit of sixty five years.
ALL INDIA RADIO
- The first radio programme was broadcast by Radio Club of Bombay in June I923.
- It was followed by the setting up of a Broadcasting Service that began broadcasting on 23rd July 1927 on an experimental basis at Mumbai and Kolkata simultaneously under an agreement between Government of India and a private company called the Indian Broadcasting Company Ltd.
- When this company went into liquidation in 1930, Indian State Broadcasting Service under the Department of “Controller of Broadcasts” was constituted and in 1935.
- Lionel Fielden was appointed the Controller of Broadcasting in India.
- The Indian State Broadcasting Service was renamed as All India Radio in January It remained under Department of Communication, Deptt. of I&B, Department of Information and Arts for periods ranging from 1 to 4 years and finally was under the Deptt. of Information and Broadcasting since September 1946.
- At the time of partition, India had six radio stations (Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata, Chennai, Tiruchirapalli and Lucknow) and three radio stations went to Pakistan (Lahore, Peshawar and Dhaka, now in Bangladesh).
- 1000 KW super power medium wave transmitter each was commissioned at Mogra near Kolkata in 1969 and at Rajkot in 1971.
- Four 500 KW super power short wave transmitters were inaugurated at Bengaluru in This made it one of the biggest transmitting centres in the world.
- The first ever FM service was started in Madras on July 23, 1977.
- All AIR stations were provided with 5 channel receiver terminals in 1985.
- Multi-track recording studio was commissioned at Mumbai in 1994 and in Chennai in I995.
- All India Radio came to be known as Akashvani from 1957.
- AIR took over radio stations being run by native states since British days such as Akashvani Mysore, Hyderabad Radio, and Radio Kashmir etc.
- From 18 transmitters in 1947, number went upto 584 transmitters by March 2014.
- The number of radio stations went up from six in 1947 to 403 by March 2014.
- AIR provides news, music, and other programmes in 22 languages and 146 dialects to almost the entire population of the country.
- In addition FM Channels i.e. FM Rainbow and FM Gold at Metros cater to the modern needs of the people primarily the youth.
- The Vividh Bharti has also been shifted to FM mode of broad casting system at 31 places.
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