Smriti Irani seeks list of sector experts & media platforms. Govt to organise editors’ meets, organise outdoor programmes to publicise its flagship schemes.
New Delhi: The Narendra Modi government is gearing up for a massive publicity blitz on its achievements and flagship schemes for its fourth anniversary celebrations in May, hoping to boost the government’s image before the upcoming state and general elections.
While the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting – the nodal ministry that handles publicity for the government – is yet to firm up the theme and select agencies to execute the programmes, it has decided on a multi-pronged approach. It is currently in the process of identifying key publicity areas and preparing a repository of data.
On 12 February, I&B minister Smriti Irani met all zonal heads of the Press Information Bureau and sought a state-wise list of newspapers and news websites as well as television and radio channels for the purpose.
She has also asked for state-wise editors’ meetings, to be organised on the lines of the regional editors’ meets held by her predecessor M. Venkaiah Naidu around the same time last year.
The minister has also asked for a list of experts on economics, technology, agriculture, women and youth, along with their CVs.
According to sources, the experts would be invited for panel discussions on the government’s flagship schemes on Doordarshan News and All India Radio, and would be engaged for writing columns and opinion pieces in various publications.
Officers have further been asked to prepare a schedule of programmes to publicise key government schemes, such as the National Health Protection Scheme announced in the 2018-19 Union Budget, the Mudra Yojna and the Fasal Bima Yojna for farmers.
The minister has asked the officers to identify other suitable forums to spread “key messages” of the Centre, and chalk out a list of places where different outdoor activities such as exhibitions, theatre and other cultural performances, and programmes can be organised to spread the government’s message.
Changing the process
The government’s outdoor communication was earlier carried out by the Department of Field Publicity, the Directorate of Advertising and Visual Publicity, and the Song and Drama Division for rural areas.
The ministry has now merged the three media units into 148 field outreach bureaux, which will function under 23 regional outreach bureaux, further spread under eight communication zones, each headed by a zonal director-general of the PIB.
Last year, ahead of the Uttar Pradesh and Punjab elections, the DFP had engaged private agencies to publicise the government’s flagship schemes across interior villages of the country.
The budget
The I&B ministry has allocated Rs 212.51 crore towards its publicity budget this year.
ThePrint had earlier reported a 1,800 per cent increase in the ministry’s publicity budget for this year over the last two financial years.
Last year, the cabinet secretariat, too, had asked ministries to give good publicity to cabinet decisions from individual ministries through regional media and social media.
Who’s funding this? Nirav Modi?