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    ISAS Insights

    Detailed perspectives on developments in South Asia​​

    269: A New Kind of Partnership: Social Media and Governance in the Modi Era

    Rahul Advani, Research Assistant, ISAS

    30 October 2014

    he day after his “keynote address at the Internet.org summit”2 in New Delhi on 9 October 2014, Mark Zuckerberg, the founder of the online social networking service ‘Facebook’, met India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi to discuss the possibilities of how and where social media could play a part in the implementation of various government policies relating to health, education, tourism etc. In particular, one of the results of the discussion was the agreement that Facebook would assist the Government of India in its mission of achieving a clean India in five years. Launched on 2 October 2014, the ‘Swachh Bharat’ (Clean India) campaign, which aims to reduce littering and improve the state of sanitation in the country, has harped on by Modi recently, including during his recent visits to New York and Washington.