Re: Is India a model Democracy?

[Padmanabha Rao <kvprao@igidr.ac.in>]

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Please help make the Manifesto better, or accept it, and propagate it!
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On Thu, 4 Jan 2001, A Guru wrote:
 Just to bring you back to India. If I were an auto-wala I wouldn't be
 seen dead with a transistor (akin to: India would never like to be seen

 without the Nukes). Private FM radios are successful only in the metros

 where they dish out India Pop to swanky cars doing the downtown rush
 hour drive. (Advertising spend is correlated to customer profiles)
 Villagers who have electricity have TV sets. Villagers without don't
 have the money for an FM radio in anycase.

While it is true that FMs isn't available in non-metropolitan areas, the

receiver is cheaply available wherever it operates and the consumer
population *is* substantial. Rural areas are not presently served by any

FM and I guess they won't be as long as AIR's regional AM services
continue with their high quality and focus that caters to the interests
of
the particular consumer population in those regions. And is there any
reason why an auto-wala doesn't tune to FM, other than that their
current
*content* don't suit his/her interests ?! The entry and aggressive
productions by the private FM might just change that, if they keenly
target them. Indeed auto-walas could be a major target receiver if
properly addressed in convergence with other techs. Technology is
unbounded, and pay-channel FMs can go about a lot of things, all towards

increasing the social welfare finally. They might do the opposite too,
and
the current policy of banning their production of CurrentNews is of
course, directed at containing such happenings.

You are right in pointing out that an auto-wala's status preferences
haved
moved on, though. But s/he would pack a receiver if the content were
valuable, besides the cassette-player.

Thanks.

Padmanabha Rao



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