NEW DELHI: With the Board examinations round the corner and the students getting into the thick of preparations, Prime Minister Narendra Modi is concentrating on students in the 28th instalment of ‘Mann Ki Baat’ this weekend.

Furthermore with polls being held in several states and union territories, Modi cannot take up political issues or programmes initiated by his government as the Election Commission’s Code is in force.

The broadcast on 29 January 2017 at 11am over the entire network of All India Radio will also be relayed by all AIR stations, all AIR FM channels (FM Gold and FM Rainbow), local radio stations, Vividh Bharati, five community radio stations.

The unique aspect of this important broadcast is that it is visually adapted by Doordarshan and other private TV and news channels in India and broadcast simultaneously. Similarly, radio in private sector patches AIR. All DTH operators also carry it.

The regional versions of the ‘Mann Ki Baat’ will be originated by the capital AIR stations in non-Hindi speaking zones at 8 pm on the same day. The regional versions shall be relayed by all AIR stations including local radio stations in the respective states.

It is also live streamed for global audience and is accessible through mobile app, ALL INDIA RADIO LIVE.

The monthly broadcasts have also turned out to be a major earner for AIR. Overall, AIR registered a revenue growth in 2015-16 of Rs 4,477.6 million as compared to Rs 4351 million in 2014-15.

Parliament had been told last year that the gross revenue generated by ‘Mann ki Baat’ through advertisements in 2015-16 will become part of Internal Extra Budgetary Resource (IEBR) of Prasar Bharati. IEBR is used for meeting the operational expenditure of Prasar Bharati.

Only the All India Radio broadcast of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s ‘Mann Ki Baat’ is monetised whereas other platforms like Live Streaming or app based are not.

The monthly broadcast was launched in October 2014 and the broadcaster started monetising it by December that year.