A senior government official said the mobile number, 8190881908, has been a "huge hit" and indicative of the popularity of PM’s Mann Ki Baat programme. The idea behind the new number was to widen the reach of the Mann Ki Baat programme at a time when internet connectivity in rural India remains a challenge.

(This story originally appeared in on Feb 26, 2016)

NEW DELHI: Nearly 10 lakh people have so far listened to PM Modi’s Mann Ki Baat on their mobile phones after leaving a missed call on a new number announced by the PM during his Mann Ki Baat address on January 31.A senior government official said the mobile number, 8190881908, has been a "huge hit" and indicative of the popularity of the PM’s Mann Ki Baat programme.Details accessed by ET show that between January 31 and February 23, the number was inundated with as many as 31 lakh missed calls. "Some people called twice as they did not get a return call instantly given the huge queue. Ultimately, there have been nearly 20 lakh unique missed calls on which outbound return calls were generated," the official said.9.58 lakh return calls were answered with the callers listening to the Mann Ki Baat address for an average of 17-22 minutes. The PM’s last Mann Ki Baat address on January 31 lasted for about 28 minutes. "Some return calls went unanswered as people may not have picked the call from an unknown number or the phone was out of coverage area," the official said.The idea behind the new number was to widen the reach of the Mann Ki Baat programme at a time when internet connectivity in rural India remains a challenge. A person not able to tune in to Mann Ki Baat on the last Sunday of the month has to go to the Internet and listen to the broadcast on sound cloud but that presumes a person has a good quality Internet connection.The same concept of using mobile penetration to widen reach of Mann Ki Baat was behind the government launching a toll-free helpline last September for people to leave their suggestions for PM's upcoming addresses. That tollfree number has also got nearly 2.25 lakh calls till date.