New number of PM Modi’s Mann Ki Baat receives over four lakh missed calls in a day

In the first Mann Ki Baat session of 2016 yesterday, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced a new mobile number, which would allow people to listen to the broadcast any time on their mobile phones after giving a missed call.

The new number announced by the PM is 8190881908, and it has already received over four lakh missed calls from Indian citizens who want to subscribe to the service.

"We had 4 lakh missed calls till late evening...over 25,000 calls came in the first hour itself after the broadcast ended... the number is rising," a senior government official told ET.

As per sources, the new number is provided so that the reach of the Mann Ki Baat programme can be widened, even to the remote areas of rural India. "If someone is not able to tune in at 11 am on the last Sunday of the month to listen to the Mann Ki Baat, the option the person has is to go to the Internet and listen to the broadcast on a sound cloud. But that presumes a person has a good quality Internet connection. Many in rural India, our farmers, do not have it. But mobile penetration in India is very high. Leaving a missed call on the number will trigger an integrated outbound calling solution with the caller getting a call to listen to the Mann Ki Baat," the official explained.

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