Govt plans misinformation pushback

The Government is firming up strategies to combat misinformation campaigns launched by foreign entities targeting India and damaging its image internationally.  This issue was brainstormed in a top level meeting last week.

The meeting was attended by all secretaries of the Union Government, who met last week to outline strategies to counter such coordinated misinformation campaigns, sources said. Example of information warfare during Operation Sindoor was also discussed, where the sole purpose of a few nations were to damage India’s image internationally. During the meeting, it was decided to come up with a robust counter-strategy to deal with such threats.

The sessions, which took place on October 25, were led by Principal Secretaries to Prime Minister Narendra Modi — PK Mishra and Shaktikanta Das — along with Cabinet Secretary TV Somanathan and Information and Broadcasting Secretary Sanjay Jaju. It was aimed to align communication strategy with the PM Modi’s vision of “Reform, Perform, Transform and Inform”. The critical discussion on “Improving Outreach and Communication for Viksit Bharat” was orgainsed at Sushma Swaraj Bhawan, New Delhi. The deliberation mainly focused on “ways to strengthen public communication, enhance citizen outreach through digital and emerging technologies”.

In the first part of the meeting, it was emphasised that there is a need for better coordination between Government departments and ministries for effective communication to counter misinformation campaigns. During the second part of the meeting, the discussion revolved around adopting new-age digital tools for strategising communication efforts. It was also stated that all the ministries should adopt emerging technologies and digital platforms to disseminate information or “run awareness campaign”, the source said.

There was also deliberation on “how to improve and enhance Government’s connect with people”. The focus of the ministries should be on making Government policies accessible to everyone by communicating information in simple terms so that everyone can understand. A team from Mygov was also present during the meeting. During the meeting, reducing private entities in Government communication was also discussed. In place of using private entities, it was discussed, the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting should be responsible for disseminating any official information and ways should be taken to reduce use of private entities.