Over four lakh calls after PM Narendra Modi gives out new No. for Mann Ki Baat

NEW DELHI: The government was flooded with over four lakh missed calls from citizens on the new mobile number announced by Prime Minister Narendra Modi during his ‘Mann Ki Baat’ address on Sunday. The mobile number, 8190881908, will now allow people to listen to the Mann Ki Baat broadcast any time on their mobile phones after leaving a missed call, the PM announced.

"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.

Sources said the idea behind the new number is to widen the reach of the Mann Ki Baat programme at a time when internet connectivity in rural India remains a challenge. “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. The high number of calls meant lines going busy as return call was of 28 minute-long duration of the PM’s address, leading to a long queue for calls.