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NEWS SERVICES DIVISION

Living up to its nobleideals of “Bahujan Hitaya, Bahujan Sukhaya”, the News Services Division (NSD)of AIR strives to provide news and views to every dweller in this vast countryin varied terrains, 24X7, in all major languages and dialects, while adheringto highest professional ethics and standards in Radio Broadcasting.

SET UP OF NSD

The News Services Division is headed by a Director General (News),who is one of the senior most officers of the Indian InformationService. He is assisted by a team of Additional Directors General(News), Directors (News) and Joint Directors (News), Deputy Directors (News),Asstt. Directors (News), News Editors and Reporters etc. The differentoperational wings of NSD at headquarters in Delhi include: GeneralNews Room, Hindi News Room, Reporting Unit, Talks and Current Affairs Unit,Newsreel Unit, Indian Language Units, Reference and PP&D Unit, IT &Website unit and Administrative Wing. The Regional News Units invarious States are headed by an officer of the rank of Director or DeputyDirector/Assistant Director and assisted by News Editors, Reporters andNewsreaders-cum-Translators.

EARLY HISTORY

The history of news broadcasting in India ismuch older than that of All India Radio. The first news bulletin in thecountry went on the air from the Bombay Station on July 23, 1927 under aprivate company, the Indian Broadcasting Company. A month lateron August 26, 1927 another bulletin in Bengali was started from theCalcutta Station. Until 1935, two bulletins, one each in English andHindustani were broadcast from Bombay and a bulletin in Bengali wasbroadcast from Calcutta. The Indian Broadcasting Company wentinto liquidation in March, 1930 following which broadcasting came under thedirect control of the Government of India. The service wasdesignated as the Indian State Broadcasting Service. It was renamedAll India Radio on June 8, 1936.

DEVELOPEMENT

The real breakthrough in news broadcasting came afterJanuary 1936 when the first news bulletin from the Delhi Station went on theair on January 19, 1936 coinciding with the starting of itstransmission. Besides, news bulletins in English and Hindustani,talks on current affairs were also started from the Station in both thelanguages.

The Central News Organization was set upon August 1, 1937. Mr. Charles Barnes took charge as the firstNews Editor in September and he later became the first Director ofNews. The outbreak of the Second World War in 1939 gave an impetusto the development of the Organization. The Monitoring Service wasset up in 1939 to monitor foreign broadcasts. In 1943, the ExternalBroadcast Unit was set up under the Director of News. By 1945, theCentral News Organization was handling news bulletins in different Indianlanguages as well as in the External Services. After Independence, newsbroadcasts of AIR grew both in quantity and quality. More emphasis waslaid on national and regional news bulletins.

SOURCE OF NEWS

The bulk of AIR news comes from its own Correspondentsspread all over the country. It has more than 81 regularCorrespondents in India and abroad at Colombo, Dhaka, Dubaiand Kathmandu. Apart from this, AIR has over 520 Part-time Correspondents basedat nearly all district headquarters. The PTCs are to meet therequirements of Doordarshan News also. NSD subscribes to the news wire agencies– UNI, PTI and their corresponding Hindi services – Univarta and Bhasha.

OUTPUT

• 607bulletins daily in 92 languages/dialects.
• Foreignlanguage bulletins in Arabic, Baluchi, Burmese, Dari, French, Indonesia, Persian, Pashtu, Russian, Sinhala, Swahili, Tibetan,Thai, Chinese etc.
• Over60 hours of total daily broadcast of news bulletins and current affairsprograms
• Specialbulletins/programmes during elections, budgets, sessions of parliament/statelegislatures
• RadioPlus: News on Website, News on Social Media- Facebook, Twitter, Soundcloud,YouTube & Instagram.

C. Regional Bulletins

Regional news bulletins were introduced inthe early fifties. The first such news bulletins were broadcasted inApril, 1953 from Lucknow and Nagpur Stations. In 1954-55,Regional News Units were set upat Bombay, Madras and Calcutta. This went onsteadily and at present there are 46 Regional News Unitsfunctioning in different parts of the country. 478 newsbulletins in 77 regional languages/dialects including Englishand Hindi are being broadcast from RNUs for a duration of nearly38 hours. These include 255 headlines bulletins on FMand other frequencies.

Detailsof Bulletins and Current Affairs Programmes of RNUs

TotalNo. of RNUs – 46

NEWS BASED PROGRAMMES

During February 1936, talks on current topics wereintroduced for the first time in English. In September that year,talks on current topics in Hindustani were added. Later ‘Topics forToday’ and ‘Focus’ on matters of current interests were introduced on 26thOctober, 1962. In 1967, the programmes ”Topic for Today” and”Focus” were renamed as ”Spotlight and ”Current Affairs”.

COVERAGE OF PARLIAMENTARY PROCEEDINGS

The daily and weekly reviews of the proceedings inParliament during the sessions were introduced on February 14, 1961 inEnglish and Hindi. The daily review called ‘Today in Parliament’ inEnglish and ‘Sansad Sameeksha’ in Hindi has two parts, one on the proceedingsin the Lok Sabha and the other on those in the Rajya Sabha. The weeklyreview in English – ‘This week in Parliament’ and that in Hindi ‘ Is SaptahSansad Main’ – sums up the important highlights of the proceedings in bothHouses during the preceding week.

The broadcast of the daily and ‘Weekly Reviews’ of theproceedings of the State legislatures, when they are in session, were startedin 1971-72 in the respective regional languages. A review of the‘Proceedings of the Delhi Assembly’ was started from December 14, 1993.

RADIO NEWSREEL

Radio Newsreel was started on December 10,1955 both in English (Radio Newsreel) and Hindi (Samachar Darshan)from Delhi. Newsreel in English is broadcast on Monday,Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday while Samachar Darshan is broadcast onWednesday, Friday and Sunday. Some Regional News Units also put outregional Newsreels in the respective regionallanguages.

SOCIAL MEDIA

The NSD, AIR has been expanding its presence year after year,across various domains with the aim to disseminate news to the publicand reaching diverse cross sections of the society. NSD, AIR has embracednew technologies and practices, since last three years, to add to itstraditional platform and disseminate News and Discussion Programmes on NewMedia applications, including Social Media, as Radio.

Since three years, theNews Services Division has substantially increased its presence on the socialmedia viz Website, Facebook, Twitter, Soundcloud, YouTube & Instagramand has crossed major milestones in reaching out to audience far and wide.

LANGUAGES OF BULLETINS

Languages of News bulletins of EighthSchedule of Constitution of India: (Total Languages- 22)

Assamese, Bengali, Bodo, Dogri Gujarati,Hindi, Kannada, Kashmiri, Konkani, Malayalam, Manipuri, Marathi, Maithili, Nepali, Oriya, Punjabi, Sanskrit, Santhali, Sindhi, Tamil, Telugu and Urdu.

Other Indian Languages Bulletins: (TotalLanguages- 5)

Bhojpuri,Chhattisgarhi, English, Ladakhi, Rajasthani.

Bulletins in Dialects : (Total Dialects- 51)

Angami, Adi,Adi(Galo), Apatani, Ao, Balti, Bhojpuri, Bhutia, Chakhesang, Chang, Dimasa, Garo, Gojri, Hmar, Ho, Idu, Jaintia,Kabui, Karbi, Khasi, Khampti, Khiamnugan, Konyak, Kokborok, Kuki, Kurukh,Lepcha, Lotha, Mao, Miju Mishmi Wancho, Mundari, Mizo, Nagamese, Nagpuri, Nocte, Nyshi, Paite, Pahari,Phom, Purgee, Rengma, Sangtam, Sambalpuri, Sema, Thadou, Tangkhul, Tangin,Tangsa, Tulu, Yimchungru, Zeilang.

Bulletinsin Foreign Languages: (Total Languages- 14)

Arabic, Baluchi, Burmese, Chinese,Dari, French, Indonesia, Persian, Pashto, Russian, Sinhala, Swahili, Tibetan,Thai.

* Haj Bulletin of 05 minutes duration is alsobroadcast during Haj period for two months (1110-1115).

Details of External English News Bulletins broadcastby NSD HQ (English)

* SAARC bulletin of 5minutes duration is broadcast on Sunday only from 2030-2035 hrs.

Details of External Hindi News Bulletins broadcast by NSD HQ (Hindi)

Foreign Language Bulletins which are compiled by NSD, AIR in English andbroadcast by ESD, AIR