(Photo: Prasar Bharati)

India celebrated National Broadcasting Day on 23 July, commemorating the first radio broadcast from the Bombay Station under the Indian Broadcasting Company in 1927.

The Information and Broadcasting Minister, Anurag Thakur, took to Twitter to mark the occasion and reflect on the influence All India Radio has on social integration and social change.

The public broadcaster Prasar Bharati shared a link to the oldest All India Radio recording in its archives – the last Governor-General of India, C Rajagopalachari, speaking at the opening of the AIR station in Madras in 1938.

Radio broadcasting services started in India during British rule in 1923 under the initiative of the Radio Club of Bombay. Radio went on to have an enormous impact on the creation of an independent India in 1947.

AIR now comprises 420 stations across the country, reaching nearly 92 percent of the area and 99 percent of the total population.

The public TV broadcaster Doordarshan, established in 1959, operates 46 studios, five national channels, 17 regional satellite channels and an international channel (DD India).

In addition, there are now reported to be more than 900 private TV channels in the country.