1 lakh civilians befriend ‘MyGov’

Government’s social media platform ‘MyGov’, which was launched by Prime  Minister Narendra Modi around two weeks back, has received good response with over one lakh people joining the site so far.

At the ongoing Asia-Pacific Regional Internet Governance Forum 2014(APrIGF 2014), Ajay Kumar. joint secretary, Department of Electronics and Information Technology, said: "We have had over 1,00,000 contributions (at MyGov). Several thousands of hours have been contributed by common people to participate in it. The platform today provides the opportunity for people to connect directly with the Prime Minister."

Kumar said India is widely using Internet and launching large-scale infrastructure project to connect masses and the drive is being spearheaded by the Prime Minister himself.

Meanwhile, he also announced that the government will shortly start Internet governance forum at India level in which it will engage states to come up with their viewpoints.

Internet Service Provider Association of India (ISPAI) and National Internet Exchange of India (NIXI) have jointly organized APrIGF  2014 to discuss India's view on points around Internet governance that should be placed before main Internet Governance Forum to be held next month in Turkey.

RS Sharma, secretary, Department of Electronics and Information Technology; Ajay Kumar, joint secretary, Department of Electronics and Information Technology, and Edmond Chung, CEO, Dot Asia (APrIGF Secretariat), among others were present on this occasion.

This social media  platform was launched by Modi on  July 26, 2014 , to engage with citizens online who want to contribute to the development of the country through their ideas. 

MyGov, dubbed as the new Facebook for civilians, is an initiative by the government to connect with people for the development of the country.

The Asia Pacific Network Information Centre director General Paul Wilson said that the region is under-represented at global and if people don't come forward they may miss to get benefit of Internet and many Internet applications which don't cost anything today may attract cost.

“At present, there are various issues around Internet which include a tug of war between telecom operators demanding share of business from various websites and applications. There are issues around Internet-based companies and government over content which leads to various restrictions like ban on certain websites and interception of Internet traffic,” he added.

Rajesh Chharia, president, ISPAI, said, "We are extremely happy and delighted to host the Prestigious APRIGF 2014 first time in India along with SANOG 24th Edition and YIGF 2014. The event serves as a platform for discussion, exchange and collaboration at a regional level, and also where possible to aggregate national IGF discussions, ultimately advance the Internet governance development in the Asia Pacific region."