In search of a word cloud, IIM-Ranchi to study Mann Ki Baat

A three-member team of professors from IIM-Ranchi will conduct the research to “understand how communications such as these help” address relevant issues today. Subhro Sarkar, a professor in Marketing at the institute, told The Indian Express that the programme has the potential to reach a lot more people in a structured manner and since it is difficult to find out what has been spoken at a particular time, their research would help people from across disciplines to access it in the form of summary, graphs, tabular forms.

Sarkar said, “There has been no research that has tried to summarise entire episodes. We will do it with a topic modelling approach, with easier-to-understand findings that everyone, and not just those in academia, can easily access.”

On the process of the study, Sarkar said the first part is to collect data — or transcripts of all 100 episodes — and then standardise the format of data. “We will then do quantitative analysis — even if some parts are not coherent, we will try to analyse them. We aim to finish it in the next two months and then put it up on public domain. The idea is that researchers and state governments or anyone may take a cue on various agendas for policy-making.”

Asked whether there will be any analysis on what the PM did not address in his 100 episodes, Sarkar said, “That is not the primary focus of the study. It depends on what he has said.”