MyGov bridges common mass with Prime Minister

Around one lakh people have joined the government's social media platform "MyGov" within two weeks of its launch by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Dr Ajay Kumar, Joint Secretary, Department of Electronics and Information Technology, said here at the ongoing Asia-Pacific Regional Internet Governance Forum 2014 (APrIGF 2014).

Ajay Kumar also announced that the government will shortly start Internet governance forum at the India level in which it will engage states to come up with their viewpoints. The Internet Service Providers’ Association of India (ISPAI) and the National Internet Exchange of India (NIXI) have jointly organized APrIGF  2014 to discuss India's views on points around Internet governance that should be placed before the main Internet Governance Forum to be held next month in Turkey.

R. S. Sharma, Secretary, Department of Electronics & Information Technology; Dr Ajay Kumar, Joint. Secretary, Department of Electronics & Information Technology, keynote speakers APrIGF Chair Paul Wilson (APNIC), Rajnesh D. Singh, ISOC Global (Regional Director of the Asia-Pacific Regional Bureau), Philip Grabeneese, Senior Lawyer of SHSG CO. Germany, and Edmond Chung, CEO, Dot Asia (APrIGF Secretariat), were present on this occasion.

This social media platform was launched by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on 26th July, 2014 to engage with citizens online who want to contribute to the development of the country through their ideas. While addressing the APrIGF 2014 in his keynote address on India’s views and milestone development in Internet governance, Ajay Kumar 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."

Asia-Pacific Network Information Centre Director General Paul Wilson said 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.