MUMBAI: The third all India conference of the Listeners’ Club of the Voice of Russia, dedicated to the Year of Russia in India and Russian-Indian Co-operation, was inaugrated at the Russian Centre of Science & Culture (RCSC), Ferozshah Road, New Delhi on 5 November. The conference is jointly organized by the Voice of Russian Broadcasting Company and the RCSC.
The Voice of Russia is a Russian state radio company broadcasting in foreign languages including Hindi, Urdu and Bengali since 29 October 1929. Financed by the government and headed by the Chairman and the board of Editors, it aims at briefing the international community on developments in Russia, providing its views on current global events, and promoting an objective image of Russia.
Currently, the Voice of Russia broadcasts in Russian and 37 foreign languages on short and medium waves – a total of 145 hours a day. The Voice of Russia has been on the internet since July 1996, it broadcasts on the internet in 33 languages. Its website is used by people from 140 countries and has an estimated 128,000 listeners from 96 countries. The Voice of Russia caters to 109 million people across the world . Listeners from 160 countries regard it as a convenient and democratic source of information on Russia.
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Speaking on the occasion, Oleg.N. Yakolev, Head of the department of broadcasting to Asian countries,The Voice of Russia emphasised on Indo-Russian relations and contribution of The Voice of Russia in the same. “Today we live in the age of television and internet, but still radio has not all lost its importance specially people of grass root level,” Yakolev said. The chief guest of the conference , JNU’s Director, Eurasian Foundation and Associate Professor, School of International Studies Dr Arun Mohanty spoke about how Voice of Russia has played an important role in Indo-Russian ties. “Voice of Russia was the only broadcaster in world which used to broadcast in 12 Indian languages”, Dr Mohanty said. He was optimistic that Voice of Russia will once again play a role of great freindship.
The Voice of Russia’s Head of the Section of Broadcasting to South Assian Countries Goergiy A Vanetsov talked about Russia’s important steps in building up relation with India. He also talked about how listeners requests and interests are taken care in Voice of Russia programmes.
Sergey A Kolesov, Deputy of the Department of Asia and Africa, The Russian Center for International, Cultural and Scientific Corporation (ROSZARUBEZHCENTER) and Lyudmila V Blazhenkova, news Reader and anchor Person in hindi language,The Voice of Russia also addressed the audience on the ocassion. K K Singh, veteran of Hindi broadcasting of the Voice of Russia initiated a discussion on the topic The Voice of Russia is the Main Source of Information about of Russia in India” in which representatives form Voice listeners club from all over India also took part.
Listeners from the states of Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, West Bengal, Gujarat, Delhi, Haryana and Chattisgarh took part in the conference. The Russian representatives from the Voice of Russia interacted with the Indian listeners and took note of their views. There were many suggestions given by the listeners including a demand to rebroadcast some of the programmes in the local FM channels similar to what some international broadcasters are doing. The conference continues on 6 November.
