The name 'Pradhan Mantri Jan Dhan Yojana' for the government's ambitious financial inclusion plan came out of a competition organised at MyGov platform (http://mygov.nic.in). From the about 6,000 entries, a few were shortlisted from which the jury finally selected 'Jan Dhan' as the name of the scheme, which was announced by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in his Independence Day speech.
The government is now mulling to appoint a CEO to manage the platform, which seems to have evoked a lot of interest from the citizens who are coming out in large numbers to shares ideas and give suggestions in framing various policy decisions.
"We have to scale it up now; which is why we are appointing a full-time CEO, and have a full team, which will have content managers, moderators, etc," Department of Electronics and Information Technology (DeitY) secretary R S Sharma told Business Standard.
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Being developed by DeitY, the MyGov platform uses a software called Symphony. Nearly half-a-dozen people from the National Informatics Centre (NIC) are managing the content of the open-source platform.
MyGov platform is currently seeking entries for design and logo for the Digital India programme. There is a cash prize of Rs 50,000 for the best entry, and the last date for sending in entries is September 1. Suggestions have also been invited for name, logo and tagline for the institution that would replace the Planning Commission.
These are some of the digital initiatives of the Modi government to reach out to the people to achieve the promised "good governance with your partnership".
Explaining the MyGov initiative, communications and IT minister Ravi Shankar Prasad said about 200,000 people have already registered with the portal, out of whom 28,000 have submitted detailed plans and project ideas on a range of issues. He said the Prime Minister wanted to wish people through email and mobile on the Independence Day. And the format of the messages came from MyGov. The minister said the PM sent emails to 3.5 million people and reached out to 12.5 million people through SMSes.
Available in Hindi and English, the MyGov platform recently organised e-greeting contest on the eve of Independence Day. Some of the selected entries are showcased at the portal. The platform is also seeking suggestions on issues such as Clean Ganga, girl child education, skill development, job creation, and environment protection.
The portal claims the Clean Ganga campaign has received suggestions from 18,000 people. Some of the suggestions include: keeping commercial activities at a distance from river banks; linking rural employment guarantee scheme with the cleanliness drive; and, punishment for polluters.
On girl child education, many members suggested that while the funding for the initiative should come from the government, private players in association with local communities should be entrusted with the task of managing such programmes. The group discussing Digital India programme seems to have attracted a lot of people. It has received entries from 38,000 people.
"People are suggesting a lot of creative ideas through the portal," said Sharma. He added volunteers to run the platform are also coming through MyGov. "Our idea is to take the membership of MyGov to 10 million. It currently stands at 215,000 and all this happened in 30 days or so," said the secretary.
