India and Russia on Wednesday proposed to include Information and Broadcasting in the forthcoming BRICS Summit, slated to be held in June. Minister of State for Information & Broadcasting Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore met the visiting Russian Minister of Telecom and Mass Communication Nikolay Nikiforov and discussed key issues of mutual cooperation in this sphere.
According to sources, in this age of expanding information technology, both sides have stressed on increased cooperation between the BRICS countries and in particular between India and Russia. BRICS represents five major emerging economies including Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa.
The areas of mutual cooperation would include internet space, television and social media and also an exchange of media personnel, student exchange programmes of television and film institute, amongst others.
The discussions between the two countries were said to be crucial, considering India is the largest democracy and Russia has a strong international presence in broadcasting and television network.
In another development, the I&B Ministry has been awarded the Platinum icon award for the Comprehensive Web presence in the Web Ratna Awards 2014. The award was presented to Ministry for having a significant presence on all social media sites which makes it accessible for users through multiple online platforms.
The website was lauded for catering to the information needs of various stakeholders by providing access to all the policies and guidelines issued by the Ministry. The home page of MIB website has timestamp, giving last update details. The website has a dedicated Hindi version besides regular English version. The portal has a Google enabled search facility to search within the HTMl content. The website is based on Content Management System (CMS).