NEW DELHI: About 1000 radio stations are likely to be set up this year in the country by the educational institutions like the Universities, IITs, IIMs and residential schools. The Community Radio Station scheme in educational institutions was approved by the Union Cabinet last month.
Presiding over the launching of Golden Jubilee celebrations of Institution of Electronics and Telecommunication Engineers (IETE), here today, the Information and Broadcasting Minister, Sushma Swaraj said that there is going to be a radio revolution in the country and she called upon the engineers to seize this opportunity and make these radio stations operational. 
She said that in this era of convergence and optical fibre, an inter-disciplinary approach would become necessary. Only those entrepreneurs who keep abreast with the latest technological developments, innovate with technology applications and come out with products to meet genuine felt needs of the consumers, will get the early bird advantage. 
Swaraj called upon the engineers to take initiative at a micro level so that at the aggregate macro level, the nation as a whole takes a quantum jump in development. Stressing the importance of research and development, Swaraj said that pure research should not be neglected because it enables harnessing of technologies for applications. 
The focus must be kept on our 20 million strong diaspora which has among the best electronic, computer, communications, broadcasting engineers and IT experts and larger collaborations between Indians in India and Indians abroad could help in making us the world leaders in the knowledge based sunrise industry, she said.