From Yoga to Statue of Unity- how mere mentions in Mann ki Baat have raised popularity & dialogue

A special study conducted by SBI and IIM-Bengaluru has analyzed the impact of 105 episodes of PM Modi’s Mann Ki Baat in last 9 years

Prime Minister's monthly radio programme -Mann Ki Baat, has played a key role in popularising various government schemes, according to special research work conducted by the State Bank of India and the Indian Institute of Management, Bengaluru titled - 9 Years of Mann Ki Baat: Transforming People, Policies & Governance.

The mentions of historical figures such as Mahatma Gandhi to Swami Vivekanand to C V Raman to Lal Bahadur Shastri to Dr Kalam, “have instilled a sense of confidence in the populace with Google search results analysis showing a spike in related search post the mention of a cultural icon by the Prime Minister in Mann ki Baat with repetition of mentions leading to higher search statistics over an elongated time period,” as per the report.

It further says that several government schemes such as ‘Beti Bachao Beti Padhao’, PM SVANidhi, Sukanya Samriddhi Yojana among others have resulted in rising awareness level that reflects incremental adoption levels of these schemes.

Beti Bachao Beti Padhao’ scheme launched in Jan 2015, “gained traction in google searches popularity after Mann Ki Baat in Jan 2015. It has further gained google searches popularity after continuous Mann Ki Baat mentions for 2 years,” the report said.

According to the report, as many as 36 million accounts under the Sukanya Samriddhi Yojana (SSY) have been opened with outstanding deposits of around Rs 2 lakh crore so far. SSY is a small deposit scheme of the Government of India meant exclusively for a girl child, launched as a part of Beti Bachao Beti Padhao Campaign.

Mudra Loan application search also has gained traction in Google searches after Mann ki Baat's episode but it gained the highest popularity with the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic, the report added.

Another term used repeatedly- Yoga, gained popularity in google searches after Mann ki Baat on Dec 14, “but after heavy weight communication on Mann Ki Baat in May and June 2015, it has gained popularity enough to increase the mean of google search popularity,” the report added.

Further, as per the report, with Mann Ki Baat, Khadi has gained immense popularity, with concomitant rise in sales. Social media coverage of Khadi has gone up too, it said.

“Millets, which used to get negligible searches, got traction with the onset of 2022 and gained further traction with Mann Ki Baat, increasing the mean from 0.026 earlier to 55.77,” it said.

Searches related to Statue of Unity too got a sharp traction since October 2018 after mention in Mann Ki Baat. “Statue of Unity’s previous negligible searches got traction with Mann Ki Baat of Oct 2018, giving it the highest popularity and changing the mean of searches from 0.17 earlier to 6.38 thereafter,” the report said.

There has been 75 percent increase in searches about Jallianwala Bagh in the last five years since 2018, it added. Report also found that there was 25 percent increase in average searches about Swami Vivekananda after it was mentioned in the Mann ki Baat episode in 2015.

PM Modi started Mann Ki Baat on 3 October 2014 and is broadcast on the last Sunday of every month at 11 am on All India Radio and Doordarshan.

Despite the availability of a plethora of digital communication means, PM chose Radio as All India Radio (AIR) is one of the largest broadcasting networks in the world. AIR coverage to 99.20 percent of the population spread over 92.0 percent area of the country.

As per the PIB release dated 24 April 2023, 23 crore people listen to Mann Ki Baat regularly, and another 41 crore people listen to it occasionally. The majority of listeners (around 73%) are optimistic and feel the country is going to progress, the report claims.