The Prime Minister, Narendra Modi addresses the nation every month on All India Radio. Having officially started from 3 October 2014, the programme aims to deliver the Prime Minister's voice and ideas to the general masses of India. Since television connection is still not available everywhere in India, especially in the isolated, rural and less developed regions, radio was chosen to be the medium for the programme, owing to its wider reach. An estimated 90% of the total Indian population is reachable over the medium. Doordarshan'sDirect to Home service free dish relays feeds of the 20-minute-long episodes, to television and radio channels. The first Mann Ki Baat programme was broadcast on the occasion of Vijayadashami on 3 October 2014 followed by the second broadcast on 2 November 2014. The former President of the United States, Barack Obama, was a part of the January edition of 'Mann Ki Baat', which was aired on 27 January 2015. Obama had arrived in India to be a part of the Republic Day Parade. In the first fifteen addresses of Mann ki Baat broadcast, more than 61,000 ideas were received on the website and 1.43 lakh audio recordings by listeners have been received. Each month, some selected calls become a part of the broadcast. From 2 June 2017, Mann Ki Baat will be available in regional dialects.The aim is to expand reach of the program as far as possible. The 50th episode of the program was broadcast on All India Radio on 25 November 2018.
Reception
The programme has been well received by the target audience, especially the urban masses residing in metropolitan cities across the country. A survey in 2014 conducted on the lines of estimating the show's success, in 6 Indian cities including Mumbai and Chennai, has indicated that some 66.7% of the population had tuned in to listen to the Prime Minister's address and had found it useful. In 2017, an AIR survey found that the maximum listeners came from the Bihar, Gujarat and Madhya Pradesh; while the states of Andhra Pradesh and Arunachal Pradesh had the lowest awareness. Mann Ki Baat became a major source of revenue for the All India Radio. In 2015, the usual ad slots on AIR sold for - per 10 seconds, but a 10-second ad slot for Mann Ki Baat cost.
Research and analysis
A week before the PM’s 50th ‘Mann ki Baat’ a telephonic study was carried out by All India Radio. The campaigns mentioned by Modi which had the most impact on listeners were Selfie with Daughter, Incredible India, Fit India and Sandesh to Soldiers. The most remembered topics were the promotion of Khadi, Drug Free India and Team Tarini. Following the 60th episode on 29 December 2019, Hindustan Times did a word cloud analysis of Mann Ki Baat. The words "India" and "nation" were the two most used words in Mann Ki Baat in 2019. "Water" was used 73 times while "Youth" and "Young" were mentioned 30 and 54 times. "Economy" or "economics" was spoken 8 times.
