Cabinet nod for social media wing

The Cabinet on Thursday approved the proposal for creating a new media wing in the Information and Broadcasting Ministry for publicising the Government’s initiatives. The Government will be spending Rs 22.5 crore during the 12th Plan to establish this new media wing. The Information and Broadcasting Ministry has already been running a pilot project to position itself on social media platforms, such as Youtube, Facebook and Twitter. “The New Media Wing would be headed by a senior officer of Joint Secretary level and will work under his overall supervision, direction and guidance. The administrative and operational support will be provided by a media unit under the Ministry i.e. Research Reference & Training Division which would be the New Media Wing,” the I&B Ministry said in a statement. A Ministry official said the media unit would be working on engaging with social media platform users, monitor content, manage feedback as well as focus on response management.