What does government actually mean to most people? Bureaucracy and red tape. Although it is possible for you to push your local Member of Parliament into doing something, just getting in touch with her can often be an exercise in frustration. You might have an important issue from your neighbourhood that you would like to raise, but how do you ensure that you're actually heard?
The government has one idea for how to solve this problem, and it wants to use technology to get there. Meet mygov.in, a digital platform that enables the citizens to discuss and participate in national policies and issues with a click of their mouse. The platform allows you to choose from a number of government projects, like Clean Ganga, Girl Child Education, Green India or Job Creation, and gives you a chance to intervene in these areas. You can either jump into the forums to discuss the issues with other interested in it, or slide over to the "Do" tab, that helps organise people willing to do things like field work and cleanliness drives.
The most interesting part of the app is that it rewards credits to users who are extremely active and involved. And a few lucky ones also may get a chance to directly talk to the PM Modi and discuss the issues in greater detail. So far, there are more than 9,94,000 registered members, 1,28,000 idea submissions and 5,25,000 comments in the discussion theme of the website and still counting.
The question now remains, with all those hundreds of thousands of members and comments, will an ordinary user actually have any hope of her comment getting heard?
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