Living up to its noble ideals of “Bahujan Hitaya, Bahujan Sukhaya”, the News Services Division (NSD) of AIR strives to provide news and views to every dweller in this vast country in varied terrains, 24X7, in all major languages and dialects, while adhering to highest professional ethics and standards in Radio Broadcasting.
The News Services Division is headed by a Director General (News), who is one of the senior most officers of the Indian Information Service. He is assisted by a team of Additional Directors General (News), Directors (News) and Joint Directors (News), Deputy Directors (News), Asstt. Directors (News), News Editors and Reporters etc. The different operational wings of NSD at headquarters in Delhi include: General News Room, Hindi News Room, Reporting Unit, Talks and Current Affairs Unit, Newsreel Unit, Indian Language Units, Reference and PP&D Unit, IT & Website unit and Administrative Wing. The Regional News Units in various States are headed by an officer of the rank of Director or Deputy Director/Assistant Director and assisted by News Editors, Reporters and Newsreaders-cum-Translators.
The history of news broadcasting in India is much older than that of All India Radio. The first news bulletin in the country went on the air from the Bombay Station on July 23, 1927 under a private company, the Indian Broadcasting Company. A month later on August 26, 1927 another bulletin in Bengali was started from the Calcutta Station. Until 1935, two bulletins, one each in English and Hindustani were broadcast from Bombay and a bulletin in Bengali was broadcast from Calcutta. The Indian Broadcasting Company went into liquidation in March, 1930 following which broadcasting came under the direct control of the Government of India. The service was designated as the Indian State Broadcasting Service. It was renamed All India Radio on June 8, 1936.
The real breakthrough in news broadcasting came after January 1936 when the first news bulletin from the Delhi Station went on the air on January 19, 1936 coinciding with the starting of its transmission. Besides, news bulletins in English and Hindustani, talks on current affairs were also started from the Station in both the languages.
The Central News Organization was set up on August 1, 1937. Mr. Charles Barnes took charge as the first News Editor in September and he later became the first Director of News. The outbreak of the Second World War in 1939 gave an impetus to the development of the Organization. The Monitoring Service was set up in 1939 to monitor foreign broadcasts. In 1943, the External Broadcast Unit was set up under the Director of News. By 1945, the Central News Organization was handling news bulletins in different Indian languages as well as in the External Services. After Independence, news broadcasts of AIR grew both in quantity and quality. More emphasis was laid on national and regional news bulletins.
The bulk of AIR news comes from its own Correspondents spread all over the country. It has more than 81 regular Correspondents in India and abroad at Colombo, Dhaka, Dubai and Kathmandu. Apart from this, AIR has over 520 Part-time Correspondents based at nearly all district headquarters. The PTCs are to meet the requirements of Doordarshan News also.
| Bulletins | Number of Bulletins | Duration (daily in minutes) | Language(s)/Dialects |
| Hourly Bulletins, Regional bulletins, External bulletins, FM headlines bulletins etc from NSD and RNUs. | 607 | 3150 min (52 hrs 30 min) | 92 |
| (NSD – 129) |