Indian Prime Minister’s app just crossed 2.5 million downloads
The app that was launched in June 2016 for enabling direct communication between Indian citizens and the Prime Minister’s Office, has already been downloaded 2.5 million times and is expected to see 20 fold growth in user-base.
The “Narendra Modi mobile app” or “NM on the go” as it is often referred, is one of its kind and the only platform for Indian citizens to directly communicate with the Indian Prime Minister’s Office. This app which allows discussions and submission of grievances has been downloaded 2.5 million times since its launch in June this year and Prime Minister Narendra Modi is looking at a growth of 20 times in the use of his app translating to a user base of at least 50 million in the months to come.
This app provides citizens access to critical information about flagship programmes, overview of PM’s major initiatives, and enables people to make a donation to the Prime Minister’s National Relief Fund. Narendra Modi is hoping to connect with people in the remotest of areas through this app which was launched at the first ever town-hall meeting in New Delhi and is part of the government’s Digital India campaign.
It is being used extensively and almost on a 24×7 basis by Modi’s ministers who have been updating the app by posting initiatives of the government and interacting with the masses. According to an Indian daily, it is the most used app of any political leader in the world and an average user spends around 20 minutes on it on a single visit.
It is for the first time that a mobile application of this nature for the country’s highest office has been prepared.
A sneak peak in to its formation
The app is a brainchild of six students who participated in a contest by Google and bagged a chance to develop this tool together with the US tech-giant and “MyGov”, a citizen engagement platform of the government of India.
Raghav Sarin, Gyan Lakhwani, Prajwal Seth, Preet S Khalsa, Naman Dwivedi and Pranav Sethi make for the ‘Team Sanskrit’ which won the contest that saw more than 10,000 entries and 45,000 ideas pitched.
A jury comprising Google’s South-East Asia head Rajan Anandan, Paytm founder Vijay Shekhar Sharma and senior PMO officials picked Team Sanskrit’s entry, which offered features like an option for users to seek appointments with PMO officials and location-based alerts in the event of emergencies.
Team Sanskrit is to look into the maintenance of the app and add new features over time to increase its usability and functionality.
