Digital India: Get SMS alert informing of new policy decision straight from PM Narendra Modi

NEW DELHI: Soon, you could get an e-mail or SMS straight from the Prime Minister informing you of a new policy decision or even an urgent alert in national interest.

The e-Sampark initiative launched as a part of 'Digital India' last year is now being extended to private citizens, especially professionals, for building a direct citizen connect on various issues, policies and programmes of the government. So far, e-Sampark database has 80 lakh email addresses and over 1 crore mobile numbers of central and state government officials sourced from the NIC — 42 crore e-mails and SMSs have been sent so far by the Prime Minister's Office or Central Ministries to them.

The government will now be opening up the system on a crowd-sourcing model, where people can sign up for the service on a portal for getting alerts from the PMO and other ministries. An online portal to enable this is expected to be up in a few days.

"As of today, in the absence of a central repository of all government employees and Indian citizens, the ability to reach out to an individual is missing. This gap will be filled by the optimum use of e-Sampark database... the government envisages use of the database for diverse purposes like feedback, policy information, alerts etc.," says an order issued by the Centre on December 3. The order adds that in the near future, the database will also include the database of professionals in the country and information, alerts, feedback for a programme and policy drafts can hence be sent to a "targeted user base" thereby "improving the efficiency of governance and e-governance efforts."

The government has also specified the kind of messages that can be sent to the "target user base" using the e-Sampark database, namely — "information pertaining to an existent or proposed policy or decision of the government, launch of new schemes, issue related to initiate citizen awareness, urgent alerts in national or public interest, government updates and outcomes related to global interactions and greetings for generating goodwill."

"The service could be vital in emergency situations, like sending an alert to people to vacate an area in wake of an impending cyclone or guiding them on relief measures or even to quell rumours in a sensitive riot situation," a senior government official told ET.

Non-government employees wishing to subscribe to e-Sampark will be asked to fill up a form online specifying their name, e-mail, mobile number, location and profession.

The e-Sampark cell of NIC would also ensure only unique e-mail addresses and mobile numbers are stored to avoid duplication and a citizen can unsubscribe to the database any time.