Government goes the online way

In yet another move to embrace the social media and connect better with the youth ahead of the 15th Lok Sabha elections, the government is doing away with the old methods of sending hard copies of parliament papers and press releases to the media offices rather build its on-line platform as it plans to go the complete digital way by the second half of the year.

The Press Information Bureau (PIB) has already stopped issuing the Rajya Sabha papers and has also instructed the Lok Sabha to comply with the same soon.

"Earlier we used to have a whole set of papers which were sent twice a day about 2 o'clock then it would go at 6:30-7 pm to at least 500 to 600 offices and there was an approximate cost of Rs.10 lakh annually," Neelam Kapur, Principal Director General (M&C), Press Information Bureau (PIB) told DNA.

"So we have done that with Rajya Sabha and asked the Lok Sbha as well which is working it out. Hopefully by the next session we will get into the system," she added.
 
According to Kapoor, this was not a useful way of disseminating information any more because by the time the copies reached its destinations, it was too late.

The information will be uploaded on the concerned websites right after the question hour by 11am, the officer assured.

However it is not as easy as being thought!

Unlike the PIB website where the press releases are available on the home page, digging out relevant information from either the Rajya Sabha or the Lok Sabha websites is a tedious job. The websites are not even prompt to upload the content as assured.

This is giving tough time specially to journalists who feed on this information for their regular news bites.

"We will check with the concerned teams and ensure that the websites are more user friendly," Kapur said.

The government also plans to rebuild its rudimentory social media cell into a more interactive platform from where it can seek response of the citizen directly.

Currently just one of the department's officer is handling it. He practically tries to update the websites, tweet content, do live web-cast of important press conferences and put it on you tube soon after. But now they are planning to develop a platform where not only information can be disseminated but where a discussion can go on.

"It is very important to hear what is being talked. Sometimes certain sections of government are apprehensive, after all there is no check, anybody can come and post anything so they are apprehensive about this," Kapur said.

"But even if there are some remarks which may be irresponsible or frivolous I think there are some reactions which are very useful for government to know and I think its very important for us to set up a system so that we know what is the reaction on policies and also understand how things are sometimes not properly understood."

Though the government would not completely outsource the manpower but get experts to help them. They plan to start off in a small way with over a dozen people and then expand as required.

"This all is to develop a stop shop for all government information. People have the right to know and we as government respect that right and want to disseminate in the best possible way. There are many issues on which people need to have debate and discussion."

The access to digital information is only going to grow so it is very important to make the government presence on digital media, much more strong and much more relevant.

"We have put it in the 12th plan. Now once the budget is passed in the parliament we will get our funds from the finance ministry so I think in the later half of the year we should be doing it in a full fledged manner."

Ministry of Information and Broadcasting (MIB) is one of the few ministries which has already begun a full fledged online initiative. The ministry has roped in over 1000 volunteers who are tasked to further expand the reach of the messages by re-tweeting.

"Interested candidates can fill up an online form and after a regular screening they are roped in. There is no pre-set qualification but he should be active on social media," a senior MIB official told DNA on the basis of anonymity as he is not the official spokesperson.

"We are also conducting contests for the volunteers wherein they can put their feedback on various issues such as recently we had a seminar on 100 years of cinema. So we will ask them to post videos related to the theme," he added.

India is a country with over 100 million internet users of which 40 million have broadband and are most active on social media.

Google Hangout another platform recently saw lots of traction as well, while it was used by the Finance Minister P. Chidambaram to address the nation post his budget presentation, the Planning Commission along with the National Innovation Council, hosted it on the 12th Five-Year Plan.

Ministries are not the only place where the active reaction for social media is taking place. Individuals like Shashi Tharoor, Minister of State for HRD who has been an avid Twitter user has inspired many other ministers recently.
 
HRD Minister Pallam Raju who re-joined Twitter a while ago thanked Ira Trivedi, an Indian novelist and an entrepreneur for making him come back on Twitter and informed Tharoor of his arrival in the first few Tweets.