Since 2019, a total of 264 Community Radio Stations have been commissioned across India till date. To further strengthen and upgrade the existing Community Radio Stations, financial assistance has been provided to 26 stations from the financial year 2020-21 to till date.

6 Doordarshan channels have been established and 17 existing Doordarshan channels have been upgraded after 2019.

The Government carried out an impact assessment of Community Radio Stations in the year 2017 and the report titled “Study on Listenership, Reach and Effectiveness of Community Radio Stations in India” was published on 23.08.2018.

As per report, the Community Radio has played prominent role in fostering community engagement, promoting local culture, and disseminating information in rural and remote areas. Link for the report: https:// https://mib.gov.in/ministry/our-wings/broadcating-wing.

For Doordarshan Kendras, an impact assessment study on the publicity campaign was conducted in the LWE affected areas at Raigarh District of Chhattisgarh in Feb 2019. Awareness about jingles/spots broadcast from Akashvani Raigarh was recorded with 73.5 % listeners. Weekly reach to jingles/spots from Akasvani Raigarh was found at 67% listeners.

Government is continuously expanding and diversifying its rural media outreach to through multiple platforms:

• DD Free Dish (Free-to-Air Direct-To-Home) service has grown significantly — from 104 channels in 2019 to 510 channels at present.
• This includes 92 private channels, 50 Doordarshan channels, and 320 educational channels.
• 48 Akashvani radio channels, including FM Gold, Rainbow, and Vividh Bharati, are available on the DTH platform.
• In 2024, Prasar Bharati launched the OTT platform “WAVES”, a multi-genre digital streaming aggregator that integrates Doordarshan and AIR network channels.

These platforms are playing a key role in making information, education, culture, and news easily accessible to all. They are particularly impactful in rural and remote regions, including through educational programming and private channels.

This information was submitted by Minister of State for Information and Broadcasting Dr. L Murugan in Lok Sabha today.

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 Dharmendra Tewari/ Navin Sreejith