Feb 27, 2006 :: The FM wave

Those that lament that India does not attract as much foreign direct investment as China, are not quite aware of the spirit of Indian daring and enterprise.

Today’s Outlook magazine, has a story on how licences to run FM stations have been snapped up by unlikely candidates. The government has auctioned 258 licenses for towns across India and these have been won by farmers, real estate developers and young entrepreneurs. They are not deterred by national chains planned by the likes of Reliance, Sun and Times. They believe that with FM, content has to be local and that they have the better expertise. Local news, yoga lessons, farming notes, cookery programmes, folk music will all dished out, paid for by advertisemnets as low as Rs 250 for 10 seconds.

They can’t air news and political opinions yet, but that will come along. Till then an already open Indian society has just got a little better.