English rules the roost in AIR bulletins

English news bulletins definitely rule the roost with 3 hours and 52 minutes daily, while Hindi news is allotted 2 hours and 30 minutes with the regional languages cornering 8 hours and 5 minutes between them.

Is the Queen’s language given preference over Hindi when it comes to state-run All India Radio (AIR) bulletins? English news bulletins definitely rule the roost with 3 hours and 52 minutes daily, while Hindi news is allotted 2 hours and 30 minutes with the regional languages cornering 8 hours and 5 minutes between them.

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Interestingly, the last attempt to rationalise the timings and duration of AIR news bulletins was made 41 years ago, a RTI query by activist Subhash Chandra Agrawal has revealed.

AIR is the main broadcaster of radio news in the country. It reaches out to 92% of the country's area and 99.19% of the total population.

Every day, one hour and 40 minutes is taken up by special types of news bulletins like regional news, sports news, etc.

AIR's News Services Division broadcasts more than 510 bulletins everyday in 82 languages and dialects. Of these, 89 news bulletins are broadcast daily from Delhi in English, Hindi and other Indian languages while AIR’s 44 regional news units air 355 daily news bulletins in 67 languages.