Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s monthly radio programme ‘Mann Ki Baat’ made brought about a “behavioural change” among people with the kind of exchanges with the listeners during the show, Dr Amit Kapoor, Chairman, Institute for Competitiveness, said on Saturday.

Kapoor said that the Prime Minister made conversations with the people on the issues which mattered to the citizens. Kapoor was speaking on the report on the impact of ‘Mann Ki Baat’ by Institute for Competitiveness (IFC), Axis My India and Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.

“It made a very huge sense for us to understand the impact it creates, we found unique things as we went along. We saw behavioural change in people with the kind of conversations that PM Modi made with the people. About 100 crore people heard these conversations. These conversations discussed topics that mattered to citizens,” he said while speaking to ANI.

‘Axis My India’ was the knowledge partner, the Institute for Competitiveness (IFC) the research partner of the report and the research was supported by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.

Pradeep Gupta, founder and CMD of ‘Axis My India’ which was the knowledge partner in the research, said that the issues impacting the people due to PM Modi’s interaction varied from place to place.

“It was a different kind of study in itself as we had to know what kind of changes Mann Ki Baat made in the lives of the people. Different issues had impact on different places. For example, in Madhya Pradesh’s village of Betul, people were initially not ready to get themselves vaccinated. But when PM Modi interacted with them directly about it. The villagers had their own concept of why they were not taking the vaccines. But within a few days of the Prime Minister’s interaction, every villager got vaccinated and benefitted,” Gupta told ANI.

He said that the upcoming 100th episode of Mann Ki Baat which will be aired at 11 am today will create more awareness among people.

“The 100th episode will create more awareness among people. Listening is one thing, being impacted is another, and the third thing is change. I think more people would start making the change when they listen to the episodes of Mann Ki Baat,” he said.

Speaking to ANI, Archana Vyas, Deputy Director, Policy, Communications & Behavioural Insights, at Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, said with Axis My India and IFC as partners, they looked back at all the episodes of Mann Ki Baat.

“A thorough analysis was done about the themes that have been highlighted by the Prime Minister and there was tracing back of people to see if it did really generate any impact,” she said.

Vyas said Mann ki Baat has reached to both urban and rural populations.
“There are two or three things which have stood out in the research. One, it is a unique platform which has reached out to both rural and urban populations effectively. The use of traditional as well as digital platforms has been unique and transformational. Nearly 100 crore people have actually watched at least one of the episodes of Mann Ki Baat. It is a case study,” she said.

“Second – it has spurred community action. We have seen through the case studies that communities have taken action on the clarion call of the Prime Minister. This community action can be sustainable because of community adoption,” she added.

The programme started on October 3, 2014, months after Narendra Modi took over the Prime Minister’s Office in May.