Centre to launch 3 FM channels in Nagaland

Al Ngullie Dimapur, February 2 The central government will be launching 18 new FM Radio Channels in six towns of the northeast region states as part of augmenting mass media services in the province. The states that are to receive the FM channels are Assam, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Nagaland, and Tripura. The Union Minister of State (independent charge) for the Development of North Eastern Region (DoNER), Dr Jitendra Singh, told a conference of regional editors that the additional channels are to add to 12 existing channels. Said states are to receive 3 FM channels each, he said. Dr. Singh was addressing the All India Regional Editors Conference at Jaipur, Rajhastan, on Tuesday, February. The ministry of DoNER has taken various initiatives since the taking over by the current government, he said. Dr. Singh spelled out to the regional editors some programs that he said were some of the initiatives that the ministry was undertaking: The government has announced setting up of a centre for film production, animation and gaming in Arunachal Pradesh for the north-eastern states, he said. Another project is that 18 new FM Radio Channels have been approved in addition to 12 existing channels for the north eastern states. 3 FM channels each will be launched in six towns of Assam, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Nagaland and Tripura, he said. Also, a 24X7 TV channel called “Arun Prabha” is ready to provide a platform to rich cultural and linguistic identity of the north eastern region. During the conference, Dr Jitendra Singh also interacted with the editors and responded to various queries and discussed the initiatives of the ministry. The minister also gave a brief outline of the festival ‘Destination Northeast-2016’ which is being organized by the DoNER ministry to be conducted during February 12-14 in New Delhi. The festival envisages displaying “the inherent economic, social and cultural strength of the north east region at national level.” This festival will depict various facets of the north east communities in their ‘myriad forms and colors’ through events as the proposed mega events. The event will include theme specific business summit consisting of sectors such as tourism, agriculture, food processing, skill development and entrepreneurship, information technology, handloom and handicrafts, livelihood, micro-finance and start-ups. For those not in the know, radio broadcasting is a unidirectional wireless transmission over radio waves intended to reach a wide audience. Transmitting stations can be linked in radio networks to broadcast a common radio format, either in broadcast syndication or simulcast or both. Audio broadcasting also can be transmitted via cable radio, local wire television networks, satellite radio, and internet radio via streaming media on the Internet. The signal types can be either analog audio or digital audio.