Crowdsourcing an idea: Now I&B calls for videos on ‘Aspirational India’

Government is also planning to crowdsource content for jingles and spots it runs on Doordarshan and All-India Radio.

From getting the general public to design print advertisements, to scouting for ideas online on what shape the new body replacing the Planning Commission should take, crowdsourcing of ideas appears fast emerging as a major communication strategy of the Narendra Modi government.

Taking the idea a step forward, the Information & Broadcasting Ministry is all set to call in entries on the theme “Aspirational India” wherein the general public will be asked to create 3-5 minute-long videos.

“We’ll be asking the masses to create audio-visual content on the stated theme and mail it to us. Like the I-Day print ad crowdsourcing, we’ll be coming out with some basic parameters which these clips must adhere to. The entries would be judged by an independent selection committee comprising field experts, artists and academicians and the best videos will then be used on various government platforms, including the I&B ministry’s official YouTube channel,” a ministry official said.

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In addition, the government is also planning to crowdsource content for jingles and spots it runs on Doordarshan and All-India Radio.

This, sources said, is in line with the new government’s thrust on getting more and more people involved and connected with idea-generation process. “Instead of the government coming up with content, now the emphasis is on involving the general public in content creation,” an official added.

What began with getting print ads designed for this year’s Independence Day through an open competition is now going to be replicated on all days of national importance. “The government has already decided to get the content of all of its mandatory ads like Republic Day, Gandhi Jayanti, etc crowdsourced,” a source said.

The importance the NDA government is attaching to crowdsourcing is unmistakable. The nomenclature for the “Pradhanmantri Jan-Dhan Yojana” — a scheme wherein a bank account holder will be given a debit card that will guarantee an insurance of Rs 1 lakh — which the Prime Minister recently launched across the country, too, was arrived at through crowdsourcing.

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In fact, the people who suggested the name for the scheme were given prizes during the launch.

A few days back, the government, after creating a special open forum on mygov.nic.in, asked citizens to suggest a “name, logo & tagline” “for the institution to replace the Planning Commission”.

The government also recently asked citizens to design a logo for it’s “Digital India” programme and announced a prize of Rs 50,000 for the best entry.

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