| February 22, 2007 | Thursday | Safar 4, 1428 |
Radio makes a comeback in India
Uplift schemes suspended
If you are an art aficionado, it is mighty hard not to take a shine to Karachi. These days, the Karachi cityscape is a sight to behold. It appears to be right out of a precious work of a Renaissance painter, or for that matter of any painter representing any era. To gauge the verity of the observation, one visit of Gulistan-i-Johar would, and should, suffice.
NEW DELHI: “Get up. It’s already 10 o’clock,” urges the voice on the radio. “If you haven’t had your breakfast yet, do have a steaming hot cup of tea or coffee while I play this number for you.” A song from a Bollywood hit movie follows and then more music after that, hour after hour, blaring from radios in cars, homes, mobile phones, offices and markets here in the Indian capital.
THE widening and reconstruction work of Rawalpindi by-pass intersection which was started some two weeks ago by the highway department to avoid the traffic jams has been stopped and the road users are facing a great deal of inconvenience. They have asked the authorities concerned to complete the task on priority by removing all hurdles, if any, being put by any government department.
The geometrically symmetrical dug-up service lanes and the puddle-ridden roads following a certain zigzag yet not-so-complex pattern will make you realise that had Picasso been alive, the area would have been his biggest source of artistic inspiration. He would have shunned cubism with a vengeance and adopted a holistic approach to art, which would have been spelt “the hole(stick) approach to (he)art”. The holes that one confronts on every step of the way are the most profound symbols of life: round, dark, muddy, jumpy, craggy, marshy and damp – all kinds of human experiences.
A low-angle shot of heaps of mud that are shoveled across the roads in order to lay water and sewerage pipelines by the concerned department(s) depict, albeit unwittingly, a certain (female) body posture that Vincent van Gogh would have loved to recreate. A wonderful sign of abstraction in realism!
But nothing can top the roads. They are so beautifully damaged, broken, and bruised from virtually every side that whenever a vehicle breaks its axle or destroys its shock absorbers trying to conquer the roads and gets inert as a result (with its driver trying to comprehend the problem bending over or sliding down the vehicle) it appears as if Salvador Dali is behind all of this.
It is so very surrealistic. Just mind-blowing! I wish Gulistan-i-Johar remains this way for a long, long time. After all, what is art but a reflection of life!
Like so many other parts of the economy, the radio industry is booming in this country of 1.1 billion people. Deregulation by the government, rising consumer affluence and a growing youth culture have Indians tuning in to the airwaves in greater numbers than ever — many listening to lively music on their cell phones.
They are drawn to a more traditional medium that is expanding even as other, newer forms of entertainment, such as cable TV and the Internet, are also reaching bigger markets. Radio continues to hold one clear advantage: It’s free.
Listeners now have numerous stations to choose from, whereas in the past the field was monopolised by the state-run All-India Radio network, whose mandate was — and is — to “inform, educate and entertain the masses.” For decades after India’s independence from Britain in 1947, All-India Radio was the only game in town.
Private FM stations were virtually unheard of. But that began to change in the 1990s, when the government embarked on broad-based economic reforms that have resulted in an economy now growing at a clip of nine per cent a year. In the last five years, broadcasters have bought nearly 300 licenses to operate FM stations in 100 cities, with most of that expansion happening within the last two years.
What they hope to capitalise on is the Indian love of music, which plays an integral part in people’s lives, be it in their prayers, festivities, marriages or folk traditions. The overwhelming influence of Bollywood and its musical extravaganzas has also ensured that there is a background score playing in the daily lives of ordinary Indians.
“Radio has been a big part of all our lives for many years. However, with the advent of television, it had started becoming increasingly irrelevant,” said Apurva Purohit, chief executive of Radiocity, India’s pioneer FM station, started in 1999. “The arrival of FM with its unique delivery style, young and hip RJs (radio jockeys), better production quality and sound delivery has brought radio back to the forefront.”
The fledgling industry is worth $68.5 million, Purohit and others say, a value they expect to double in the next two years. Its growth has been boosted by the increased listening of FM radio on people’s mobile phones, which have exploded in popularity over the last few years (FM radio is currently available on some cell phones in the US). There are now 69 million mobile phone users in India.
As in the US, young people are a key audience for radio broadcasters and the advertisers hungry for listeners’ rupees; after all, more than half of India’s huge population is younger than 25.
“I listen to FM radio on my mobile phone for at least two hours a day, especially at night,” 19-year-old college student Maitreya Biswas said, adding that FM radio plays “the latest tracks, has amazing sound quality and the best part is (it’s) free…. It speaks the language of the young — guiding us, for instance, on movies to watch, happening events in town and … providing us with a lot of local information.”
Local stations in New Delhi now give updates on the city’s horrendous traffic. Industry leaders such as Purohit are hoping that the government will relax regulations that currently prohibit news programmes.
“Further easing of government regulations by allowing news and current affairs to be broadcast or multiple-frequency ownership in the same city by a single player will also aid growth,” she said. “We believe that for the medium to expand, it needs a lot more experimentation, willingness to try new formats and play different types of music.”
Almost all major broadcasters have lined up massive plans for expansion. Radiocity, which now broadcasts in five languages across seven cities — at times in three languages from the same station — plans to have its footprint in India’s 20 largest cities. BIG 92.7 FM, another industry heavyweight, is also about to expand, with 45 stations to be added later this year.
All-India Radio remains the industry champ: it can be heard by 99 per cent of the population and broadcasts in 24 languages and 146 dialects.
But perhaps realising radio’s potential in the private sector, the government has slashed its previously high licensing fees in the last five years and set up a revenue-sharing agreement entitling it to four per cent of each station’s annual revenue.
In a country plagued by unemployment, the radio industry has also helped the government by throwing open new job prospects, especially for the young and educated.
“We receive as many as 50 calls a day from people of various age groups, all wanting to come and attend our course,” said Nalin Ranjan Singh, director of the New Delhi-based News Reading and Anchoring Institute.—Dawn/The Los Angeles Times News Service
At a meeting held here the other day, the road users pointed out that Rawalpindi by-pass intersection was very important because hundreds of vehicles going to Rawalpindi, Sialkot, Lahore and Hafizabad passed through it daily. It was stated that the City District Government Gujranwala ordered it’s widening by removing the roundabout and demarcation wall of GT Road, besides uprooting trees and big billboards. The highway department removed the roundabout and the demarcation wall but trees and billboards could not be removed. Now the widening and reconstruction work has also been stopped. The participants expressed resentment over it and urged the CDGG to get the project completed swiftly.
CONSTRUCTION work on different uplift projects throughout the district has been stopped by building contractors owing to an increase in cement prices. At a meeting held here the other day, the building contractors expressed anguish over the increase in cement prices. They said that when these projects were started the common price ranged from Rs175 to Rs185 per bag. Suddenly the prices of cement were enhanced up to Rs290 and Rs320 by the factory owners and dealers’ association through monopoly and secret deal. They said that they would have to bear heavy financial loss if the estimates of development schemes were not revised. They demanded of the prime minister to take strict action against the cement factory owners and dealers’ association and cement prices should be fixed at Rs175 per bag instead Rs260.
THE Punjab teachers’ union opposed inducting English teachers as headmasters of government primary schools, bypassing experienced primary teachers under the new education policy and demanded that the decision should be taken back. At a meeting held here the other day presided over by district president Chaudhry Nazer Muhammad Cheema, the participants said that inducting English teachers as headmasters of government primary schools was technically wrong as they had no experience of routine office work of schools and the education of students suffered. They suggested that experienced primary teachers should be appointed headmasters of primary schools while English teachers should be deputed for teaching the students. They were of the view that the government had already destroyed the school system by launching the slogan of ‘maar nahin piyar’ when students did not respect their teachers and elders due to this policy. They demanded that the government should fulfill its promise of giving teaching allowance to them.
PEOPLE from different walks of life expressed resentment over the seizing of special buses of girls colleges and schools by the district administration and traffic police for the reception of important personalities, leaving young girls stranded and helpless in their institutions. They asked the authorities to take stern action against the officials concerned.
At a meeting held here recently, they condemned this practice of seizing buses and public transport, including ambulances, on the arrival of high-profile figures in the city or for carrying people to public meetings. They said that the administration had seized almost all public transport for the reception of President Pervez Musharraf in Gujranwala some two days ahead of his scheduled visit and released the vehicles when his visit was cancelled due to wet weather.
They were of the view that political leaders should hire private buses or wagons on their own instead of ordering the district administration and police to capture vehicles. They pointed out that scores of passengers, including women and children, have to face a great deal of inconvenience to reach their destinations without buses and wagons.
THE Board of Intermediate and Secondary Education, Gujranwala, provided 7,000 chairs and desks to over 100 examination centers of educational institutions of the division. Provincial Education Minister Mian Imran Masood distributed the authority letters of collection of chairs to the heads of schools and colleges at a ceremony in the board office here the other day.
Speaking on the occasion, he pointed out that the Punjab government was spending Rs21 billion for the promotion of education and revamping the education system in the province and more universities and colleges were being set up for the purpose. He praised Gujranwala education board chairman Masoodul Haq for providing furniture to examination centres throughout the division and directed other education boards to provide furniture to their examination centres like the Gujranwala board.