Twitter Samvad: Get Updates Directly From PM Modi & 16 Govt. Offices Instantly On SMS

Imagine a major breakthrough which Indian scientists achieve and PM Modi sending you a SMS to announce the good news. No, its not a fantasy anymore as it has become a reality.

In another major Digital India push, Government of India has teamed up with Twitter to create a SMS alert service wherein Tweets by PM Modi and 16 other high level Govt. officials such as CMs would be directly shared with you via SMS alerts.

Powered by Zipdial, which Twitter had recently acquired (also their 1st Indian acquisition), this is the first instance of a Government tie-up with a 3^rd party social network to send SMS directly to the citizens.

PM Modi kicked off this new initiative by this Tweet:

We tried this service for connecting with PM Modi, and gave a missed call to 011-30063006. Instantly we received the welcome SMS from PM Modi, and the last Tweet which he sent to Twitter CEO Dick Costolo:

Besides connecting with PM Modi’s official Twitter handle, Indian citizens can connect with the official Twitter handles of PMO Office, CM of Gujarat, Karnataka, UP, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, West Bengal, Commissioner of Police in Bangalore, Traffic Police of Bangalore, Ministry of Defense and more. Here are all the phone numbers where you need to give a missed to connect with them:

Twitter Account	Details of the Account	Missed Call to Phone Number
@NarendraModi	Personal Account of Indian Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi	011 3006 3006
@PMOIndia	Official Account of Prime Minister’s Office	011 3006 3007
@adgpi	Official account of Additional Directorate General of Public Information, IHQ of Ministry of Defence	011 3049 6116
@RailMinIndia	Official account of Ministry of Railways	011 3049 6222
@anandibenpatel	Official account of Chief Minister of Gujarat, Anandi Ben Patel	011 3049 6050
@CMofKarnaraka	Official account of Chief Minister of Karnataka, Siddaramaiah	011 3049 3747
@CPBLR	Official account of Commissioner of Police, Bangalore City	011 3049 5141
@BlrCityPolice	Official account of Bangalore City Police	011 3049 5242
@blrcitytraffic	Official account of Bangalore City Traffic Police	011 3049 5464
@ncbn	Personal Account of N Chandrababu Naidu	011 3049 5767
@TelanganaCMO	Official Account of CM of Telangana	011 3049 5868
@YadavAkhilesh	Personal account of Akhilesh Yadav, CM of Uttar Pradesh	011 3008 3380
@UPGovt	Official account of Government of Uttar Pradesh	011 3049 6353
@NitishKumarJDU	Personal account of Nitish Kumar, CM of Bihar	011 3008 2828
@mamataOfficial	Personal account of Mamata Banerjee, CM of West Bengal	011 3008 3333
@MeaIndia	Official Account of Ministry of Corporate Affairs, India, Syed Akbaruddin	011 3049 5969

Earlier, Shahrukh Khan had used Zipdial’s missed call platform to connect with his fans. He had advertised a phone number where his fans need to give a missed call, and all his Tweets would appear as SMS on that number. Even Gillette had run such a similar campaign on Facebook platform, using Zipdial platform.

But after Twitter’s acquisition of Zipdial, this is their first major campaign, and definitely a first for any Indian politician to broadcast Tweets using SMS service.

This new initiative can also be described as a bridge between smartphone features and feature phone users, as those who cannot afford smartphone or use Twitter can now access PM Modi’s tweets and know more about the things which Government is doing.

Last year, PM Modi kicked off the Digital India vision with allocation of Rs 1 lakh crore, which had a goal of 9 key important tasks including spreading broadband to each and every corner of India. One of the major successes was providing 100% Internet connectivity to all 32 gram panchayats at a tribal taluka in Gujarat.

Earlier this year, one of the biggest news of Digital India vision was providing free WiFi access at 2500 cities all over India, which had a budget allocation of Rs 7000 crore. First ever Internet of Things document has already been released by the Govt. and Indian Army will soon be on Cloud.

Do let us know about your views on Twitter Samvad initiative: Will it help in getting more transparency and more engagement with the Indian Government?