National Broadcasting Day

• National Broadcasting Day is observed on July 23 across the country every year.
• The Indian Broadcasting Company (IBC) started organising radio broadcasting from Bombay station on this day in 1927.
• To mark the event, All India Radio (AIR) conducted a symposium on Creation of New India and Broadcasting Medium in New Delhi.

History

• British Government took over radio broadcasting in 1930 and started the Indian State Broadcasting Service (ISBS).
• The government took over the broadcasting facilities on April 1, 1930, on an experimental basis for two years.
• IBC was a private entity and was granted permission by the British Government to operate two radio stations in Kolkata (then Calcutta) and Mumbai (then Bombay).
• It was permanently renamed as Indian State Broadcasting Service (ISBS) in May 1932. * * * Later, it was changed to All India Radio (AIR) on June 8, 1936 and became Akashwani in 1957.
• Since then, it gained popularity and changed the socio-economic life of people.
• Today, AIR’s home service comprises 414 stations located across India, reaching approximately 92 per cent of the entire country’s area and nearly 99.19 per cent of the total population.
• AIR drives programmes in 23 languages and 146 dialects.
• Currently, AIR is 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.

Prasar Bharati

• It is India's largest public broadcasting agency, headquartered in New Delhi.
• It is a statutory autonomous body established under the Prasar Bharati Act of 1997.
• It comprises the Doordarshan Television Network and the All India Radio.
• Though autonomous in nature, the Company comes directly under the regulation of the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting, Government of India.