No more All India Radio, only Akashvani from now on
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New Delhi: Public broadcaster Prasar Bharti will be dropping all references to its radio service as 'All India Radio'. From now on, it will be only called 'Akashvani'.
Gaurav Dwivedi, Chief Executive Officer of Prasar Bharati, said this is a very old decision of the government which was not yet operationalised. "We are now operationalising it."
The Prasar Bharati Act came into force on November 15, 1997. The Prasar Bharati (Broadcasting Corporation of India) Act, 1990, mentions that 'Akashvani' means the offices, stations, and other establishments, by whatever name called, which, immediately before the appointed day, formed part of or were under the Director-General, All India Radio of the Union Ministry of Information and Broadcasting.
Akashvani Director General Vasudha Gupta on Wednesday issued an internal order that demanded "compliance with immediate effect" to the statutory provision which had replaced the name of AIR (All India Radio) with Akashvani.
"The aforesaid statutory provision which has replaced the name AIR to the 'Akashvani' may be brought to the notice of all so that names and titles get in tune with the provisions of the Prasar Bharati Act of 1990 passed by the Parliament," said the order
It was the iconic poet Rabindranath Tagore who referred to All India Radio as 'Akashvani' for the first time in a poem written for the inauguration of the Calcutta shortwave service in 1939.