I&B Ministry
‘Mann Ki Baat’ earned Rs 4.78 cr; live streaming & app duds
MUMBAI: Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s radio address Mann ki Baat has reportedly got mega bucks for the All India Radio (AIR). Apart from getting millions of listeners, the programme, according to the information and broadcasting ministry, has fetched a gross revenue of over Rs 4.78 crore through advertisements.
Prasar Bharati has informed that, as far as AIR is concerned, only the radio broadcast of Mann ki Baat is monetised and other platforms such as live streaming or app-based service are not, said the minister of state for information and broadcasting Rajyavardhan Rathore.
Overall, the AIR registered a revenue growth in 2015-16 of Rs 447.76 crore from Rs 435.1 crore in 2014-15. Mann Ki Baat has also been visually adapted for telecast on Doordarshan channels.
AIR, owned by the public broadcaster Prasar Bharati, so far aired 26 episodes of Mann Ki Baat. The show was launched in October 2014 and the broadcaster started monetising it by December. It is reported that AIR generates close to Rs 1 crore from Mann Ki Baat.
According to a report in Livemint, the broadcaster has designated a total of seven minutes (five minutes before the show and two minutes after the show) for commercial revenue from Mann Ki Baat. It also airs self-promotional advertisements in those seven minutes.
The report suggests that AIR charges an ad rate of Rs 2 lakh per 10 seconds of advertising for the PM’s radio address.
I&B Ministry
Government sets up AI governance group to steer policy
AIGEG to align ministries, assess jobs impact, guide AI deployment.
MUMBAI: If artificial intelligence is the engine, the government is now building the dashboard and making sure everyone reads from the same screen. The Centre has constituted a new inter-ministerial body to coordinate India’s approach to AI, formalising a key recommendation from its governance framework and the Economic Survey. The AI Governance and Economic Group (AIGEG), set up by the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology, will act as the central platform to align AI-related policy across ministries, regulators and departments, an attempt to bring coherence to what has so far been a fragmented and fast-evolving landscape.
The group will be chaired by union minister Ashwini Vaishnaw, with minister of state Jitin Prasada as vice chairperson. Its composition reflects both technological and economic priorities, bringing together the principal scientific adviser, the chief economic adviser, and the CEO of NITI Aayog, alongside key secretaries from telecommunications, economic affairs and science and technology. A representative from the National Security Council Secretariat is also part of the group, while the MeitY secretary will serve as member convenor.
At its core, AIGEG is designed to do two things: coordinate and anticipate. On the policy front, it will review existing regulatory mechanisms, issue guidance across sectors and ensure companies remain compliant with evolving legal frameworks. Beyond that, it will oversee national initiatives on AI governance, with a focus on enabling responsible innovation rather than merely regulating it.
The economic dimension is equally central. The group has been tasked with assessing how AI-driven automation could reshape jobs identifying which roles are most at risk, where those impacts may be geographically concentrated, and whether technology will augment or replace human labour. Based on these assessments, it will develop mitigation strategies and transition plans, signalling a more proactive stance on workforce disruption.
In parallel, AIGEG will work with industry stakeholders to chart a long-term roadmap for AI adoption, categorising use cases into “deploy”, “pilot” or “defer” buckets depending on readiness factors such as data availability, skill levels and regulatory clarity. The aim is to move from broad ambition to structured execution deciding not just what can be built, but what should be built now.
The group will function as the apex layer in India’s AI governance architecture, supported by a Technology and Policy Expert Committee that will track global developments, emerging risks and regulatory priorities. Together, the two bodies are expected to shape both the pace and direction of AI adoption in the country.
In a landscape where technology often outruns policy, the creation of AIGEG signals an attempt to close that gap ensuring that India’s AI journey is not just rapid, but also coordinated, accountable and economically grounded.
