Is it difficult to acquire license for setting up a community radio?
Government is very clear with the guidelines, codes and procedures of setting up a community radio and it is a non-tedious process. Community radios today have been divided into educational institutes and NGOs. Getting permission for setting up CRS for educational institute is easy but granting the same for NGO is an issue as their funding is not transparent. Government is scared that the NGOs would use it for their personal propaganda and branding, so NGOs are not getting licenses easily. As the number of educational institutes applying for license has increased, the government has further fragmented it into private institutes, semi private and government institutes. Are there frequency issues in Community radio? The I & B Ministry issues licenses in consultation with the Department of Communication. The available frequency for CRs is 88 MHz to 108 MHz and it might be difficult to get a frequency as there are already existing frequencies. For example, in Delhi, Delhi University and JN
