(India's Public Service Broadcaster) News Services Division:
All India Radio (Reference and PP&D Unit) NBH, Parliament Street, New Delhi

News Services Division

Living up to its noble ideals of “Bahujan Hitaya, Bahujan Sukhaya”, the News Services Division (NSD) of AIR strives to provide news and views to every dweller in this vast country in varied terrains, 24X7, in all major languages and dialects, while adhering to 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 Information Service. 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 different operational wings of NSD at headquarters in Delhi include: General News 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 in various States are headed by an officer of the rank of Director or Deputy Director/Assistant Director and assisted by News Editors, Reporters and Newsreaders-cum-Translators.

EARLY HISTORY

The history of news broadcasting in India is much older than that of All India Radio. The first news bulletin in the country went on the air from the Bombay Station on July 23, 1927 under a private company, the Indian Broadcasting Company. A month later on August 26, 1927 another bulletin in Bengali was started from the Calcutta Station. Until 1935, two bulletins, one each in English and Hindustani were broadcast from Bombay and a bulletin in Bengali was broadcast from Calcutta. The Indian Broadcasting Company went into liquidation in March, 1930 following which broadcasting came under the direct control of the Government of India. The service was designated as the Indian State Broadcasting Service. It was renamed All India Radio on June 8, 1936.

DEVELOPMENT

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

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

SOURCE OF NEWS

The bulk of AIR news comes from its own Correspondents spread all over the country. It has regular Correspondents in India and abroad at Colombo, Dhaka, Dubai and Kathmandu. Apart from this, AIR has over 550 Part-time Correspondents based at nearly all district headquarters.

OUTPUT

  • 607 bulletins daily in 92 languages/dialects
  • Foreign language bulletins in Arabic, Baluchi, Burmese, Dari, French, Indonesia, Persian, Pashtu, Swahili, Tibetan, Chinese etc.
  • Over 60 hours of total daily broadcast of news bulletins and current affairs programs
  • Special bulletins/programmes during elections, budgets, sessions of parliament/state legislatures
  • Radio Plus: News on Website, News on Social Media - Facebook, Twitter, Soundcloud, YouTube & Instagram

NEWS BULLETINS

A. Total daily Broadcast duration of News Bulletins and News Based Programmes from NSD and RNUs

B. Details of News Bulletins from NSD HQ. (Delhi)

C. Regional Bulletins

Regional news bulletins were introduced in the early fifties. The first such news bulletins were broadcasted in April, 1953 from Lucknow and Nagpur Stations. In 1954-55, Regional News Units were set up at Bombay, Madras and Calcutta. This went on steadily and at present there are 46 Regional News Units functioning in different parts of the country. 478 news bulletins in 77 regional languages/dialects including English and Hindi are being broadcast from RNUs for a duration of nearly 38 hours. These include 255 headlines bulletins on FM and other frequencies.

Details of Bulletins and Current Affairs Programmes of RNUs

News Bulletins:

Programmes:

NEWS BASED PROGRAMMES

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

News based programmes broadcast from NSD HQ.

Coverage of parliamentary proceedings

The daily and weekly reviews of the proceedings in Parliament during the sessions were introduced on February 14, 1961 in English and Hindi. The daily review called ‘Today in Parliament’ in English and ‘Sansad Sameeksha’ in Hindi has two parts, The weekly review in English – ‘This week in Parliament’ and that in Hindi ‘ Is Saptah Sansad Main’ – sums up the important highlights of the proceedings in both Houses during the preceding week.

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


Social media

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

Since three years, the News Services Division has substantially increased its presence on the social media viz Website, Facebook, X, YouTube & Instagram and has crossed major milestones in reaching out to audience far and wide.

Languages of Bulletins

Languages of News bulletins of Eighth Schedule 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: (Total Languages- 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.


Bulletins in Foreign Languages: (Total Languages- 11)

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


External Bulletins in Indian Languages: (Total Languages 5)

Bangla, Nepali, Saraiki, Punjab, Urdu


News Schedule

Schedule of daily news bulletins from Delhi along with their channel of broadcast

Indian Languages Bulletins from NSD, HQ.

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

Details of ESD Transmissions Broadcasting Programmes From Regional News Units