Prasar Bharati to outsource digitising archives of DD, AIR

Prasar Bharati plans to outsource the process of digitising the archives of Doordarshan and All India Radio and has issued expression of interest seeking applications from private entities, Lok Sabha was informed today.

Minister of State for Information and Broadcasting Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore said so far AIR has accomplished digitisation of 1,39,000 hours of recording, while DD has digitised 20,139 hours of recordings.
"Prasar Bharati has informed that it also plans to outsource the digitisation process, and has issued an expression of interest calling for applications from private entities for digitisation of its archival and legacy programmes," he said.

The selected archival recordings of AIR are regularly being uploaded on You Tube, which is accessible to people through the mobile specific user interface of You Tube.
But DD's digitised archives are not accessible to people through mobile phone applications.

In the 12th Five Year Plan, AIR was allocated Rs 2.30 crore and DD Rs 16.32 crore for the purpose. AIR has digitised archival records of Mahatma Gandhi, Sardar Patel, B R Ambedkar, Maulana Azad, Subhash Chandra Bose, Rajendra Prasad and many other national leaders, the House was told. Doordarshan recordings are under 38 categories, which include rare archival records of several national leaders.