You’re Listening to Laptop Radio

A 29-year-old  IIT grad has devised a system that could transform a laptop directly into a radio station

Aaditeshwar Seth, a 29-year-old  IIT Kanpur and University of Waterloo grad, has devised a system that could transform a laptop directly into a radio station anywhere in the country. Last year, his idea bagged a $200,000 prize from the Knight Foundation.  The day’s not far, Seth says, when “a villager can sell his cow or bicycle on the radio, in his own voice”.

In 1995, the Supreme Court decided that “airwaves are public property” and in 2006 rural airwaves were further liberalised. Now NGOs, government agencies and campuses can all apply for radio station licences. The result can already be seen in ventures like Radio Bundelkhand, the radio station which deployed Seth’s technology successfully.