Public Diplomacy Division bags prestigious e-governance award

NEW DELHI - The Public Diplomacy Division (www.indiandiplomacy.in) of the Ministry of External Affairs has been chosen for the prestigious India eGov 2.0 Awards 2010 for the most innovative use of Social Media and Web 2.0 tools in government.

Instituted by eGov magazine, the India eGov 2.0 Awards aim to felicitate and acknowledge unique and innovative initiatives in the use of social media tools for creating interactive platforms for improving citizen service delivery or for sharing and garnering information to meet the larger social development goals by the government and private sector bodies including citizens, citizen groups, NGOs and political parties.

The eGov magazine is Asia’s first and only print-cum-online magazine (www.egovonline.net) on e-governance, focusing on the use of ICTs in governance.

Set up in year 2006, Public Diplomacy Division has the mandate to put in place a system to help India engage with its citizens and global audiences more effectively on issues related to foreign policy.

During the last six months, Public Diplomacy Division has launched a series of digital diplomacy initiatives that have made it one of the first Government of India organisations to tap into the potential offered by social media and Web 2.0 tools.

These include:

* A Twitter page (www.twitter.com/indiandiplomacy) that has already acquired close to 3,500 followers and provides regular information and updates on foreign policy issues

* A YouTube channel (www.youtube.com/indiandiplomacy) that hosts 21 documentary films and will increasingly provide access to activities organised by India’s diplomatic missions

* A blogspot account (www.indiandiplomacy) that provides a platform for discussing issues raised in the popular MEA Distinguished Lecture Series on India’s foreign policy

* A Facebook page (www.facebook.com/indiandiplomacy) that flags upcoming events and shares information on a range of foreign policy related issues

* Accounts on online publishing sites like Issuu and Scribd to make the Ministry’s flagship India Perspectives magazine accessible to the online community

* A new website (www.indiandiplomacy.in) that, inter alia, seeks to build a positive narrative about India in terms of its development partnerships with various countries, about the reach and impact of India’s soft power and about activities of India’s diplomatic missions.

According to a press release issued by the organizers of the event, 83 nominations were received from government and public sector organisations in the website category and 45 nominations in the social media category. The nominations were screened by the India eGov 2.0 Secretariat based on the pre-decided parameters to select top 15 nominations that were presented before the 7-member Grand Jury.

The jury was chaired by Ashis Sanyal, senior director, Department of IT, Ministry of Communication & IT.

The members of the jury included Neeta Verma, sr technical director, NIC & Coordinator for National Web Ratna Awards; Krithiga Reddy, director of Online operations, Facebook India; Kamlakar Kaul, chief strategy officer, Government Business, EMC; Niraj Prakash, Ddrector-Public Sector Marketing, Microsoft Corporation (India); Sandeep Raina, Sr VP, North, Cisco India & SAARC; Sunil Kapoor, zonal director, Fortis Healthcare; and Mrutyunjay Misra, director, JuxtConsult.