Instagram for government depicts story of emerging new India: Venkaiah Naidu

NEW DELI (INDIA):India’s Information & Broadcasting Minister M Venkaiah Naidu has said Social Media is a powerful tool to fulfil the communication needs of the Government and implement the vision of the Prime Minister ?Minimum Government, Maximum Governance?.nnIt is also an important medium to bring about transformational change and act as a catalyst for the emerging ?New India?. Instagram as a communication platform for Government would be like a Rainbow to visualise the Story of Emerging New India.nnThe Minister mentioned this at the inauguration of the ?Workshop on Instagram for better Government Communication? here today. Col. Rajyavardhan Rathore, Minister of State for Information & Broadcasting, Shri Frank Noronha, PDG-PIB and senior Officials from Ministry and PIB were also present on the occasion.nnEmphasizing on the role of Instagram, Naidu said that the medium has become an appropriate place for the Government to visually engage with citizens and other stakeholders and communicate with a new generation of digital users.nnQuoting the old maxim ?A picture is worth a thousand words?, he added that the colours of India, through its diversity celebrated through festivals, cultural practices, region specific dresses could best be experienced through visual images.nnHe emphasized that Prime Minister himself was very active on social media and is the most followed World Leader on Social Media such as Facebook, Twitter & Instagram.nnElaborating on the opportunities and challenges of social media in Governance, Naidu said that social media provided actionable intelligence and inputs to policy makers, in order to aid them in making better decisions. On the other hand, it has also raised the expectations of citizens from the Government?s across the globe. In the new digital age, citizens would not be content with just information but also its promptness and the manner in which the information has been communicated. Social Media today shape actions and has become agenda setter for debates on News channels and Papers.nnHe added that in the new world, the way people are communicating with each other is changing, and for governments to be successful, they should seek to match that evolution with their own efforts to communicate in new ways.nnThe Minister mentioned that that Government of India was working hard to institutionalize the creative and systematic use of social media within Government, in order to better tap into the promise of this tool in advancing the cause of good governance.nnThe workshop organized jointly by Press Information Bureau & Instagram was the first such workshop organized by Instagram in Asia. The workshop aimed at exposing the Government Officials to various features and applications of Instagram Platform for better Government communication and outreach on social media.