Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi is at your fingertip now. You can email him, send him a text and expect a reply from him also if possible. You have to be just the owner of a smartphone which can download “Narendra Modi App”. This new App is one more attempt by Modi to reach out to common people. Already he communicates with people through twitter and radio programme, called “mann ki baat”.
This is a smart move from the Prime Minister’s Office(PMO). India is a fastest growing market for smartphones in the world. According to networking solutions giant Cisco “the number of smartphones grew 54 percent during 2014, reaching 140 million in number and the number of smartphones will grow 4.7-fold between 2014 and 2019, reaching 651 million in number.”
Cisco’s findings also say that the number of tablets grew 1.7-fold during 2014, reaching 2.03 million in number and is expected to grow 9.2-fold between 2014 and 2019, reaching 18.7 million.
The idea is simple: to tap the digital constituency. With internet expanding with a fast pace India’s smartphone holders will feel more empowered with the PMO in their pocket.
In 2014 election campaign Modi outsmarted other political parties by reaching out to young generation through mobile phone and other digital platforms.
In the “Narendra Modi App” one can get latest news and read the biography of the PM.
Modi seems to have borrowed the idea of an App in his name from the American president, Barrack Obama, who started the similar App in his name in the last elections. But the App was shelved after the completion of election.
Modi, like his predecessor Manmohan Singh, does not interact much with the mainstream media. However, unlike Singh, Modi has tried to bypass the mainstream media and reach out directly to the people through social media.