NEW DELHI: In a move to combat information warfare and implement a comprehensive 'whole-of-government' and 'whole-of-society' approach to public awareness, all secretaries of the Central government met last week.
The meeting was to outline strategies to counter such coordinated misinformation campaigns launched by foreign entities targeting India, sources said.
The critical discussion and a few 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 the communication strategy with Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s vision of "Reform, Perform, Transform and Inform".
During the meeting, Somanathan conveyed that the Prime Minister’s vision “is the guiding principle” in the quest “for a Viksit Bharat”, the source said.
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 and promote a whole-of-government and whole-of-society approach for impactful messaging”.
In the first part of the meeting, it was emphasised that there is a need for better coordination between the government departments and the ministries for effective communication to counter misinformation campaigns.
The discussion also outlined how foreign nations are spreading false narratives about India and its policies and how a few foreign nations are trying to derail development in the country.
An example of information warfare during Operation Sindoor was also discussed, where the sole purpose of the few nations was 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. 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 an awareness campaign”, the source said.
There was also deliberation on “how to improve and enhance the government’s connection 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.
The source said that it was also discussed that the information should be disseminated in a way that resonates with common people from all backgrounds.
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 entity, it was discussed that the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting should be responsible for disseminating any official information, and ways should be looked upon to reduce the use of private entities."
