MUMBAI: Hamara MSPICM 90.4 FM, Himachal Pradesh's first community radio - a venture floated by the M S Panwar Institute of Communication and Management (MSPICM) was launched in Solan district on Friday.

The station was inaugurated by the Chief Secretary of government of Himachal Pradesh Asha Swaroop. The community radio would cater to the area within 10 kilometers radius from the main station that has been installed at the institute.

The radio would focus on the developmental aspects of the local area. MSPICM director Brijender Singh Panwar says, The content would revolve around developmental issues of health, agriculture, employment, government opportunities, literacy programmes and life coping skills etc....

Hamara MSPICM 90.4 FM would broadcast initially for two hours, one in the morning and the evening. However, later it plans to broadcast four hours in the morning and evening. The transmitter for the station has been provided by (WEBEL) West Bengal Electronics.

The institute coordinated with One World South Asia in 2006 and 2007, followed by CEMCA. It later on entered into a partnership by signing a MoU with (IGNOU) Indira Gandhi National Open University who held orientation programmes and MSPICM became a training centre for further training programmes by IGNOU. The broadcast initially started as 15 minutes feed on AIR Shimla and following the response from the listeners was formed in a community radio.

The language of communication remains the local Pahadi Bhagati dialect. The reporters contributing to the station are partially by the institute itself and by One World South Asia.

Hamara MSPICM 90.4 FM is the first to be launched in the state and the forty third in the country. There are over100 applications pending for sanction of community radio across the country, including the proposal of Dr. Y.S. Parmar Horticulture University Nauni, Solan.

Commonwealth Media Centre for Asia Director Dr R Sreedhar said that community radio has the capability to give solutions to local developmental issues of an area and build community participation in development. He appreciated the endeavour of the M.S. Panwar Institute for coming forward in adopting this mode of communication that is expected to have far reaching effects in the field of development communication.

The MSPICM is hosting the two day 7th Regional Consultation for the Community Radio enthusiasts of the North West Zone, covering the states of Himachal Pradesh Punjab, Haryana and the Union Territory of Chandigarh beginning 13 March.