New Delhi: With this Tweet, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi (@narendramodi) took another step in his Digital India initiative by launching ‘Twitter Samvad’, a service aimed to boost the nation’s e-governance plans by helping government bodies and leaders communicate directly with citizens on a daily basis via Tweets and SMS on their mobile devices.

Through Twitter Samvad, every day a set of curated Tweets will be delivered from the government and leaders’ accounts to mobile users across the country as SMS. Updates on government services, policies and activities can be delivered to any user with a mobile device signed up for the service with each of the 16 launch partners. Anyone with a mobile phone, with our without a data plan, can register for the service by giving a missed call to a unique number for each of the partners.

Twitter Samvad can also be used during the time of emergency with the ability to deliver live updates by government bodies including time sensitive information like law and order situations as well as details about any rescue efforts.

Twitter CEO Dick Costolo, who met Prime Minister Modi to discuss areas of collaboration, said, “Based on Indian technological innovation, Twitter Samvad is dedicated and specially built for the largest democracy of the world. The Lok Sabha election of 2014 was the first-ever Twitter Election in India and we want to continue contributing to the development of digital governance in India. As part of the Prime Minister’s Digital India initiative, this Tweet-powered service enables citizens to be the first to know about the government’s actions by receiving political content in real-time on their mobile devices anywhere in the country.”

The company is demonstrating its commitment to the Indian market by launching Twitter Samvad during the Twitter CEO’s first-ever visit to India. Rishi Jaitly, Twitter’s Market Director for India and Southeast Asia, said, “We are proud to have launched a service here that is for the people and of the people. This can eventually give every political leader and every government organization a mobile microphone to connect with each Indian, whether in Imphal or in Diu or in Leh or in Pudducherry.”

Twitter Samvad is based on the platform provided by ZipDial, an Indian company recently acquired by Twitter, making this the company’s first Indian service launched using indigenous technology.

Here is a list of a 16 government partners who are participating in the launch of Twitter Samvad:

Accounts	Description	Phone Number
@NarendraModi	Personal account of Indian Prime Minister, Shri Narendra Modi	011 3006 3006
@PMOIndia	Official account of the Prime Minister of India, Shri Narendra Modi	011 3006 3007
@adgpi	Official account of Additional Directorate General of Public Information, IHQ of Ministry of Defence	011 3049 6116
@RailMinIndia	Official account of the Ministry of Railways	011 3049 6222
@anandibenpatel	Personal account of Anandiben Patel, Chief Minister of Gujarat	011 3049 6050
@CMofKarnataka	Official account for the Chief Minister of Karnataka, Siddaramaiah	011 3049 4737
@CPBLR	Official account for Mr. M N Reddi, IPS, Commissioner of Police, Bengaluru City	011 3049 5141
@BlrCityPolice	Official account for Bengaluru City Police	011 3049 5242
@blrcitytraffic	Official account for Bengaluru City Traffic Police	011 3049 5464
@ncbn	Personal account of N Chandrababu Naidu, Chief Minister, Andhra Pradesh,	011 3049 5767
@TelanganaCMO	Official account of Chief Minister of Telangana, Kalvakuntla Chandrashekar Rao	011 3049 5868
@YadavAkhilesh	Personal account of Akhilesh Yadav, Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh	011 3008 3380
@UPGovt	Official account for the Government of Uttar Pradesh	011 3049 6353
@NitishKumarJDU	Personal account of Nitish Kumar, Chief Minister of Bihar	011 3008 2828
@MamataOfficial	Personal account of Mamata Banerjee, Chief Minister, West Bengal	011 3008 3333
@MeaIndia	Official account of Ministry of External Affairs, India, Syed Akbaruddin	011 3049 5969

 

Here’s how Twitter Samvad will work for users:

●     Users will have to give a missed call to each of the numbers listed above to follow each of their Twitter accounts. For example, for Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the number is 011 3006 3006.

●     Immediately after placing the missed call, users will start to receive a curated set of Tweets throughout the day keeping them in touch with leaders and government agencies.

●     In case of emergency or urgent public announcements, account owners (leaders, government agencies, disaster management cell) can instantly send an update on a given situation to all registered users.