Twitter Samvad and Digital India Programme

Twitter Samvad and Digital India Programme

Question - Social media plays an important role in the regulation of official communication. Discuss the recent Twitter Samvad service which has been introduced by the government as well as the Digital India programme.

Twitter Samvad

Twitter Samvad has recently been launched by the Modi government. This service has the following features:

• Service allows persons to receive tweets send by government leaders as well as agencies in the form of text messages over mobile phones
• Service uses social media as a communication channel for the officialdom
• Twitter Samvad is a messaging service and it is mobile optimised internet platform aiming towards creating awareness
• Digital India’s latest service, Twitter Samvad lets government agencies and leaders communicate latest decisions and ideas to the people
• This initiative launched by PM Narendra Modi will comprise 16 partners including him.
• Twitter Samvad is custom built for the largest democracy in the world and it will inform people about new government actions as well as initiatives
• Twitter will also invest in language support to make the platform accessible for more persons
• Users will send missed calls to numbers listed to follow each Twitter account; to follow the PM, the number is 011 3006 3006
• Users will receive curated set of tweets to help people to keep in touch with government agencies and leaders
• Registered users will receive instant updates on given situations such as emergencies from government leaders, agencies and disaster management cells

Digital India

Digital India Vision was launched last year with an allocation of INR 1 lakh crore

The vision areas of Digital India include:

1.Infrastructure as utility for every citizen

• High speed internet is a core utility
• Authenticated and permanent digital identity is another chief aim
• Linking of mobile phone and bank accounts is another step forward
• Shareable private space on the public cloud and safe cyber services in the nation

2. Government Services on Demand

• Seamless integration across departments and jurisdictions to provide single window access to persons
• Online and mobile platforms make government services available in real time
• Citizen entitlements available on Cloud are easier to access
• Government services improve ease of doing business, cashless transactions

3. Digitally Empowering Citizens

• This will be achieved through universal digital literacy, universally accessible digital resources, availability of government documents/certificates on cloud,
• Access to digital resources and services in Indian languages and collaborative digital platforms for governance which is participatory

Facts and Stats

About Twitter Samvad

• Twitter Samvad is launched in a partnership between the government and social media company Twitter

About Digital India

• Digital India aims to prepare India for a knowledge future; IT (Indian Talent) + IT (Information Technology)=IT(India Tomorrow)

• Digital India works to use technology for bringing about a change

• Umbrella programme covers many departments and pulls together many existing schemes

• 9 Pillars of growth areas are envisaged by Digital India namely broadband highways, universal access to mobile connectivity, public internet access programme, e-Governance, e-Kranti, electronics manufacturing, IT for jobs as well as early harvest programmes.

• Digital India is currently providing WiFi Access to 2500 cities in India

• This has a budget allocation of INR 7000 crore

• Internet of Things documents have been released; Indian army will soon be on cloud
services