New Delhi: Minister for Information & Broadcasting Shri M. Venkaiah Naidu has said that Information was ammunition to fight social evils such as corruption, poverty, illiteracy and terrorism. To ensure last mile reach, and keep pace with the changing communication paradigm, Government communication needed to incorporate innovative and out of the box ideas. Innovative ideas such as Mann ki Baat and the MOU signed with Amar Chitra Katha for comic books on Swachh Bharat Abhiyaan influenced the masses at large. Shri Naidu mentioned this while interacting the Indian Information Service Officer Trainees of 2015 batch currently undergoing at training at IIMC here today. Col. Rajyavardhan Rathore, Minister of State for I&B and Senior officers of the Ministry were also present on the occasion.
The Minister said that it was a challenge for Government communication managers to effectively design communication strategy for various Government programs and flagship schemes. He further added that communicating success stories about developmental programs like Swachh Bharat Abhiyaan, would inspire and motivate citizens and would engage them as stakeholders in the Governance process.
The Minister emphasized on the need for IIS officers to learn and adapt to the new technologies, tools, techniques to enhance reach of the government specially in the age of social media The social media perspective has changed the way we communicate and govern today which provided challenges and opportunities for the officers to enhance government outreach. In his interaction, the Minister emphasized on the need to be progressive in thought and take pride in the role and responsibility assigned to each officer. He specifically mentioned the initiative taken by the Ministry to institutionalize capacity building through appropriate training programs at different career levels. Shri Naidu also assured the officer trainees that the quality aspect associated with capacity building issues in the training programs would be improved to meet the communication challenges.
Col. Rajyavardhan Rathore, Minister of State for I&B, speaking on the occasion advised the officer trainees that there was a need to continuously learn and add value to their skills as well as the organization where they would be working.
IIS Officer Trainees also shared their experiences of the past 9 months of training with Hon’ble Ministers.
