Indian radio broadcaster All India Radio (AIR) has launched its free SMS service which will provide updates to its subscribers. Manish Tewari, the minister of Information and Broadcasting launched the new service on September 9, 2013.

AIR

Six months ago, the project was started as a pilot and is now being thrown open to the public and intends to gather 5-lakh subscribers by the end of September 2013. After the subscription, AIR will be sending free messages with news, as well as public utility messages.

To subscribe, users have to send an SMS ‘AIRNEWS’ ‘their name’ to 08082080820 or give a missed call to the same number. All India Radio intends to recover the cost of sending messages through ministries and departments who want to send their utility messages, along with the news updates. An official statement said, “The resource generated through such public utility schemes will enable the News Services Division of AIR to bear the cost incurred towards generating such SMSes”.

The UPA Government eyes the 2014 polls and has resorted to heavy advertising of its schemes under the Bharat Nirman in nearly 11 lakh spots spreads across TV, radio, print and outdoor media. The center is also running advertisements in digital cinemas, apart from TV and radio.

Photo Credits: NDTV

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