Nagpur: The first radio channel in the country exclusively meant for blind people – Radio Aksh — will be launched in Nagpur on Tuesday, April 12. The channel is based on the internet and developed by The Blind Relief Association Nagpur (TBRAN) along with Samdrushti Kshamata Vikas Evam Anusandhan Mandal (Saksham).
The channel would be inaugurated in a function organised at 6.30 pm on April 12 at Navdrushti Auditorium, TBRAN campus, in the presence of Rahul Pande, State Information Commissioner, Nagpur, and Shridhar Gadge, RSS Mahanagar Sah Sanghachalak.
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The Nagpur-based organisations, working for bettering the lives of visually-impaired populace, have taken the next step in the evolving digital world to take help of technology. To be run 24×7, Radio Aksh would have six hours content in first phase that would be repeated four times during the day and subsequently the content is planned to be increased to 24 hours, said Makrand Pandhripande, President,TBRAN, while addressing mediapersons at its premises on Monday.
The radio channel concept evolved to bridge the distance as Covid-19 provided a lesson that in such circumstances the blind people suffered reverses. As personal contact was lost, the blind could not reach TBRAN campus near Deekshabhoomi and hence the thought of a radio channel was evolved.
Providing further details about the channel, Shirish Darvhekar, Trustee, Saksham, explained that the Radio Aksh app can be downloaded from Playstore. The broadcasting software for the channel was provided at nominal annual cost by Rigro Digital, a reputed firm in the country. “For us, the Radio Channel was a smooth sailing as both organisations are already into production of digital content for blind populace. The in-house studio already produces digital content as to educational courses, competitive exams. So the transition to Radio channel is not that difficult and on offer would be content ranging from education to entertainment, talk shows to provide inspirational thoughts to blind persons. Spiritual thought of all religions would also be available along with interviews of prominent personalities, audio subscribed movies, all types of news, novels, general knowledge etc. for the subscribers, Darvhekar added.
The music for the channel is also prepared by a visually-impaired Aniket Bhende and that would be played after station ID. Darvhekar said in first phase they are planning to reach out to blind population in Vidarbha and thereafter Maharashtra within next few months. The main content would be in Hindi as its reach would be maximum, but content in Marathi and English too is being made available on the channel. The timing of the channel would be from 8 am to 2 pm and thereafter the same content would be repeated.
Dr Milind Hardas, President, Saksham, and Nagesh Kange, Secretary, TBRAN, were also present at the press conference.
