New Delhi: Public broadcaster Prasar Bharti has decided not to use the name ‘All India Radio’ (AIR) for its radio service and has decided to call it ‘Akashvani’.
An internal order issued by All India Radio Director General Vasudha Gupta on Wednesday requested the “immediate implementation” of the legal provision, renaming AIR (All India Radio). ‘Akash Vani’ has been placed.
Prasar Bharti CEO Gaurav Dwivedi said, “This is a very old decision of the government which was not implemented earlier. Now we are implementing it.”
The Prasar Bharati (Broadcasting Corporation of India) Act, 1990 provides that ‘Akashvani’ means offices, centers and other institutions, by whatever name they may be called. , which just before the appointed day became part of the Directorate General of ‘All India Radio’ of the Union Ministry of Information and Broadcasting under his management.
The internal order said, “The said by-law whereby the name of AIR has been changed to ‘Akashwani’ is hereby brought to public notice so that the name and title shall conform to the provisions of the Prasar Bharati Act, 1990 as passed by the Parliament.” I agree. All India Radio was referred to as ‘Akash Vani’ by the famous poet Rabindranath Tagore in a poem he wrote to inaugurate the Calcutta Short Wave Service in 1939.
