Unlike celebrity ambassadors for campaigns such as Beti Bachao-Beti Padhao and Swachh Bharat Abhiyan , the Centre may announce names of some young techie achievers as brand ambassadors for its ‘Digital India’ programme to be launched by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on July 1.
Government sources told BusinessLine that various names had been short-listed for the July 1 campaign, but the Prime Minister wanted names only from the information technology (IT) industry. Young entrepreneurs and achievers, such as the Flipkart co-founder Sachin Bansal, Snapdeal’s Rohit Bansal and Micromax’s Rahul Sharma could be some of the key names that can appeal to the Prime Minister, said an official.
Some earlier reports had suggested that former President APJ Abdul Kalam could be named as brand ambassador for Digital India. But, sources said Kalam can be a mentor to young guns from the IT sector.
By announcing names of young achievers, the government wants to send out a message to the world that India is ‘serious’ about digitisation and has some young entrepreneurs who started from scratch and are making billions today, the source said.
“The event will be on the lines of the ‘Make in India’ launch in September, wherein the focus will be to encourage domestic and international investment. Names of young entrepreneurs carry more appeal as brand ambassadors for creating an economic environment for the ‘Digital India’ campaign,” the official said.
The government plans to host a mega event on July 1. To be held at the Indira Gandhi Indoor stadium here, around 10,000 people, including 400 big names from global as well as Indian business fraternities such as Satya Nadella, CEO, Microsoft; Mukesh Ambani, Chairman, Reliance Industries; Azim Premji, Chairman, Wipro; Cyrus Mistry, Chairman, Tata Group and Yancey Hai, Chairman of Taiwan-based Delta Electronics, are likely to be present.
“Some State governments are also likely to announce local ‘tech heroes’ as brand ambassadors. State governments will launch ‘Digital India’ campaigns during the following week,” the official said.
Another official said Modi is slated to launch some services/applications during the event, along with ‘live’ demonstration of some of these services.