The Market Mantra Programme of Akashwani: An Analysis

As India’s National Broadcaster and also the premier service broadcaster, All India Radio(AIR) has been serving to inform, educate and entertain the masses since its inception. This organisation's broadcasts include various news bulletins, programmes related to socio-economic topics and showcasing India’s cultural diversity in different languages and dialects. Here we are discussing one of the programmes of AIR, named as “Market Mantra”. Before discussing on a broader aspect, it is important to understand what market mantra means or what it has contributed to the society. “Market mantra” means the discussions regarding the business and economic transactions of the country. It gathers information about the new developments in the Indian and world economy and disseminates said information to the masses in order to make them aware.

The Akashwani’s market mantra, it has been regarded as one of its indispensable programmes. It is broadcasted daily on Akashwani FM Gold at 6:30 in the evenings. They have a live programme of 30 minutes that discusses all business talks- about banks, various financial developments within India and abroad. Two anchors for both Hindi and English, explain the financial news for each day in a simplified manner so that it becomes easy for the listeners to grab the significant information. The programme also takes phone calls live that provide an opportunity to the audience to ask their questions or any doubts they need to solve, on Saturdays, Sundays, and Mondays. The programme also invites experts to give their own analysis on a topic so that the programme becomes more intellectual, interactive and more productive for the listeners. And this is a fact, that these experts must be there for explaining complex concepts which can only be understood through visuals. To eliminate the monotonous nature, emails from listeners are also encouraged.

Market Mantra basically involves 3 major discussions –

Firstly, they talk about the national and international shares and business transactions of each day. Secondly, the programme also broadcasts the financial or economic situations of our country in connection with other countries in the form of news. And thirdly, the discussion on the monthly, half-yearly and annual monetary policy statements of various banks. The circumstances of corporate world and share markets also have a major place in this programme.

Market Mantra receives the news from the internet, PTI or various pools in order broadcast it in their live show. The important thing which should be noticed is that the programme is bilingual- it is broadcasted both in Hindi and English, bringing an understanding and mastery to listeners of both the languages. This does not mean that it is in “hinglish”. There is no use of scripts for such type of programmes as they have a live discussion on the basis of the thinking and experience of the experts and anchors. News bulletins follow a mandatory script but a discussion can go on without a script format. A News anchor must be a good speaker- having the ability to give their message to a large audience without any difficulty. They should have excellent communicative skills. The programme can be successful only if the listeners understand the topics discussed easily.

One of the most interesting things about this programme is the use of both Hindi and English language which is very appealing to our ears and makes our communication more effective and complete. The starting of this programme includes an introduction of the programme where the word market mantra is repeatedly sung in the form of music with an interesting background sound in a male voice.

Despite various discussion taking place in this programme, the appearance of a news bulletin goes with the flow, on financial conditions, various policies of banks, inflation, agriculture, manufacturing or the government decisions regarding infrastructure and expenditure, among other things. The Mantra also discusses various government actions related to economics, finance, explains financial schemes to the audience, provides tips to improve their financial conditions and make people aware of the subsidies given to them.

Any international news to be broadcasted through this programme is always seen through the perspective of India’s connection. The five main markets of Asia- Japan, China, Singapore, South Korea, Hongkong; three of Europe- Britain, France, Germany, and the USA are mainly focused on.

To increase the listenership, the inclusion of interesting programmes, discussions, advertisements with various jingles and more than that the art of presenting the whole bulletin or programme should be of primary importance.

And this is home the page through which one can listen to programmes, news bulletins live at FM Gold. Through it, we can access the upcoming or ongoing programmes of All India Radio. Various live programmes other than Market mantra are Mann Ki Baat, Parikrama, multiple news bulletins throughout the day in both Hindi and English. All India Radio also has its social media websites that promptly broadcast news and they are completely credible and authentic. Its credibility, effectiveness, broadcasting of several unique programmes, different cultural programmes and advertisements of social awareness are a big reason for their increasing popularity.