dawn of Independence, ESD had to don a new avatar as the voice of an emerging nation, an old
civilization, a tool for diplomacy and also effective propaganda machinery at the time of
different crises. Since then the External Services Division of AIR has been a vital link between
India and rest of the World, specially with those countries where the interest of India are
intertwined because of Indian population staying in those countries.
External Services Division of AIR ranks high among the external radio networks of the
world both in its reach and range covering about 100 countries in 27 languages. The AIR,
through its external broadcasts, aims to keep the overseas listeners in touch with the ethos of
India. The languages in which AIR reaches its foreign audience are English, French, Russian,
Swahili, Arabic, Persian, Pushto, Dari, Baluchi, Sinhalese, Nepali, Tibetan, Chinese, Thai,
Burmese, and Bhasha Indonesia. The services in Hindi, Tamil, Telugu, Malayalam and Gujarati
are directed at overseas Indians, while those in Urdu, Punjabi, Sindhi, Saraiki, Kannada and
Bengali are meant for listeners in the Indian sub-continent.
National Academy of Broadcasting and Multimeda
National Academy of Broadcasting and Multimedia (NABM) (Programme) hitherto known
as Staff Training Institute (Programme) is the apex training institute of Prasar Bharati. It is
responsible for training of in-service Programme and Administrative personnel working at
various stations of AIR and Doordarshan.
Audience Research Unit
With the changing mass communication scenario, Audience Research has occupied the
centre stage. World over, almost all the big media organizations have been doing in-house
audience research in one form or the other or ‘Market Research’ in marketing parlance as no
media organization can afford to put their scarce resource at stake without knowing the potential
audience (consumers) and market for their media content.
All India Radio has been the pioneer in this field. It has a wide network of Audience
Research Units across the country operational since 1946. It provides programme feedback to
programme producers to plan, design, and modify the programmes according to the needs, tastes,
and aspiration of the target audience.
Doordarshan
From an experimental service begun at Delhi in September 1959, Doordarshan (DD) over
the years has grown tremendously to become one of the leading TV organizations of the world.
Over the years, it has not only expanded its network throughout length and breadth of the
country but also kept pace with new technological developments in the field of TV broadcasting.
Doordarshan is presently operating 34 satellite channels and has a vast network of 67 studios and
1,416 transmitters of varying power providing TV coverage to about 92 per cent population of
the country. In addition, it is providing free-to-air DTH service.
Doordarshan is headed by the Director General who is responsible for policy formation,
planning and development, infrastructure and technology development, budgetary planning and
control, human resource development; overseeing operation and maintenance activities, etc. Four
zonal offices located at Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata and Chennai look after project and maintenance
activities in their responsive zone. The various Doordarshan establishments are—Doordarshan