40% ministers of Narendra Modi government still not active on social media

Successfully driven social media campaign was one of the key highlights of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's election strategy in run up to 2014 Lok Sabha elections, but it seems a big section of ministers in his government have still not understood the usefulness of social media platforms like Twitter, as a recent stock taking exercise ordered by the Prime Minister's Office (PMO) revealed that nearly 40 percent of ministers in his government still do not have social media accounts.

Soon after taking over as prime minister, Modi, who himself is world's second most followed politician on Twitter, had "suggested in clear terms" to his ministers and ministries to join social media platforms like Twitter, Facebook, Youtube, and even blogs to directly connect with public at large. 

Now review, sent to PMO in first week of September on occasion of completion of 100 days of NDA government, has revealed that while some heard him loud and clear and not just joined social media but also started actively using it there were some who either don't have a social media account or are not actively using it.

The union information and broadcasting (I&B) ministry which prepared this report on directions of PMO believes that once PMO takes action on the report, the scene would change.

As per the review report, apart from the PM, only 26 out of 44 ministers and only 20 of 60 ministries and departments, which is literally 1/3rd, have verified accounts on social media platforms.

The report reveals that Modi and PMOIndia, the official Twitter handle of PMO, have the largest number of followers. Leaving aside Modi, the top five ministers have most followers are External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj, Human Resource Development Minister Smriti Irani, Defence and Finance Minister Arun Jaitley, Home Minister Rajnath Singh and Health Minister Harsh Vardhan.

In the ministries and departments, the top ministries in the list are external affairs ministry, Information and Broadcasting ministry, Home Affairs ministry, Railways ministry and the Ministry of Human Resource Development.

I&B - the nodal ministry in the NDA government for imparting social media training- to officials of other ministries conducted a one day long training workshop in July 2014 for imparting basic social media skills regarding the basics of operating social media accounts. Nearly all ministries have now appointed a nodal officer to handle their accounts. "Several officials from different ministries have approached us for solving their queries regarding operation of such accounts. Once everyone is on board, we would go for second round of training so that social media can be used in the best possible manner," government sources explained.

"It was the first review after the completion of 100 days and we are confident that things would soon pick up on social media activity. The situation is surely going to change after this report is review by PMO as there is expected to be a certain pressure from there on all ministers and ministries," government sources told dna.

Meanwhile, some ministries in the NDA government have gone a step ahead to follow the Modi's social media plan as they recently issued tenders to set up team that would drive their social media outreach 24 X 7 X 365 round the year 24 hours a day.

For instance two such ministries are, the Union ministry of external affairs and ministry of women and child development, few weeks ago issued tenders inviting firms who would not just regularly update government work on these platforms but would also run at least 12 social media campaigns every year along with contests and promotions to encourage interaction with public.

These ministries are also explicitly seeking from the interested companies a promise to "double the followers (on platforms like Twitter) and likes (on Facebook) from the date of starting of their contract every six months".