About 1000 radio
stations are likely to be set up this year in the country by the
educational institutions like the Universities, IITs, IIMs and
residential schools. The Community Radio Station scheme in educational
institutions was approved by the Union Cabinet last month.
Presiding over
the launching of Golden Jubilee celebrations of Institution of
Electronics and Telecommunication Engineers (IETE), here today,
the Information and Broadcasting Minister, Smt. Sushma Swaraj
said that there is going to be a radio revolution in the country
and she called upon the engineers to sieze this opportunity and
make these radio stations operational. She said, in this era of
convergence and optical fibre, an inter-disciplinary approach
would become necessary. Only those entrepreneurs who keep abreast
with the latest technological developments, innovate with technology
applications and come out with products to meet genuine felt needs
of the consumers, will get the early bird advantage.
Smt. Swaraj called
upon the engineers to take initiative at a micro level so that
at the aggregate macro level, the nation as a whole takes a quantum
jump in development. Laying stress on the importance of research
and development, Smt. Swaraj said that pure research should not
be neglected because it enables harnessing of technologies for
applications. The focus must be kept on our 20 million strong
diaspora which has among the best electronic, computer, communications,
broadcasting engineers and IT experts and larger collaborations
between Indians in India and Indians abroad could help in making
us the world leaders in the knowledge based sunrise industry,
she said.
