Saturday, April 4, 2015

SOCIAL MEDIA AND GOVERNMENT OF INDIA




Recently while learning social media in the class I found a Twitter account with the name of Government of India (@govofindia), however authority and authenticity of this account can’t be confirmed. During the course while learning various tools I explored the social media used by Government of India and how they are currently being used by them. I also explored the political system using social media as tool for engaging citizen. My experiments are :

Government is always responsible for educating citizen about new changes and policies. Earlier this aspect of information sharing was taken care by print or press media, however, growing popularity of social media inspired Government and its departments to adopt it. Indian citizens are now more curious and they want to stay in thick of things with changes and policies of Government. Understanding this changing trend, Governments has become responsive towards the issues of general public. This is certainly a big positive step followed by many Government departments. Social media really is becoming a great podium for educating people of India.

Indian postal department came up with the big breakthrough, when they created a Twitter account @PostOfficeIndia (account no more active) and started updating its achievement and historical landmarks and later on started responding to the queries of people through this account. That was just the beginning of Indian government sector presence in Social-media platforms.

During 2013 and 2014 Delhi Assembly elections, most of us know a new party came to existence with the name of Aam Aadmi Party. They went viral over various social media platform with their campaigns and it was surprising that, they formed Government in Delhi  both the times.

There are some Government departments or services on the social media, which are doing a great job to get connected with people. Six such fusion of Government, its departments or political parties with social media networking, which I discovered during the course on social media and may set  trend for other Government institutions to follow are:

        1. Indian Public Diplomacy Division of Ministry of External Affairs

@IndianDiplomacy, This is an active Twitter account of Public Diplomacy Division of Ministry of External Affairs. This twitter profile is dedicated for providing updates from the Department in terms of India’s relationship with any other countries. This page seems to be quite popular, with 3535000 Followers.

2. Planning Commission of India

Planning Commission of India is maintaining Facebook page. Most of the posts are related to updates of daily events of the commission. This Facebook page of Planning Commission testifies the fact of citizen’s awareness for Government works. Recently, Planning Commission of India has taken suggestions or ideas for countries 12th Five year Plan for the period 2012-2017. Planning Commission also operates through Twitter with @NITIAayog (handler) and this profile has 612000 followers now.
3. Delhi Traffic Police
@dtptraffic, This is a great initiative by Delhi Traffic Police. This account has 283100 followers. Delhi’s traffic is really congested and busy during all day long and especially in office hours. This Twitter account regularly updates about the traffic conditions of the Delhi region. It has turned out be a very helpful source of information, as Delhi roads have of history of blockages due to work or accidents. Control Room helpline number is also provided in the account, in case you need help. Delhi traffic police also extended their social media involvement by creating a Facebook page with a remarkable response.
        4. State Bank of India
This Government owned multinational banking service is biggest in India in terms of the net worth and number of branches. The bank is managing a Facebook page, which is dedicated to educate customers about new banking schemes and policies that State Bank of India is launching from time to time. This is also a great initiative by country’s largest banking network.
5. Aam Aadmi Party Initiative
This instance is not a Government initiative; however, they used social media networks for reaching out to the people during elections for their campaigns. This really was the biggest such campaign ever witnessed in the history of India. Apart from the party’s social media accounts and pages, key members of party also created their personal accounts for campaigning. Aam Aadmi Party has formed the Delhi Government after elections in December 2013 and 2014. There are many accounts managed by Aam Aadmi Party and their members, few of them are mentioned below :
6. Mr Narendra Modi, Prime Minister Of India
Prime Minister Mr Narendra Modi is using social media platforms quite successfully for providing information of his forthcoming policies and his day to day activity through Facebook and Twitter. His activities on social media channels are not limited to Facebook and Twitter. He has gone even an inch more than other politicians.
Details of Mr Narendra Modi’s social media account:-



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