Electrician Rajinder Negi from Tehri in Uttarakhand, who devotes two days a week to voluntary services for the radio magazine Samudaayak Radio Henval Vani, says: “I courier my work to Noida to be relayed on Worldspace, but I cannot air it here, because of our radio policy! I tape and distribute people’s voices and problems with some solutions in our local language for my village and surroundings. At least, 500 people hear and benefit from it.”

“Look at issues on TV, is there any programme which can claim to be listening to people in the interiors? Only little radio operations can do that,” he adds.

At the conference tomorrow, there will be several innovative cheap broadcast equipment on display-for instance the Radio-in-a-box, an entire radio station in a box, which costs half as much of a radio studio. But more than that, the organisers hope to win support for little people like themselves, who they say, add up to most of India.