By TIOL News Service

NEW DELHI, JULY 27, 2014: PRIME Minister Narendra Modi has launched MyGov, a platform that empowers the citizens of India to contribute towards Surajya. Speaking on the occasion, which also marked the completion of 60 days of the new Government, the Prime Minister said the success of democracy is impossible without participation of the people.

Stating that in the past, there used to be a big gap between the people and the processes of governance, the Prime Minister said that in the past 60 days, the experience of his Government was that there were many people who wanted to contribute towards nation-building, and devote their time and energy. The only thing they required was an opportunity to shine and showcase their contribution. The Prime Minister said the MyGov platform is a technology-driven medium that would provide this opportunity to contribute towards good governance.

The Prime Minister expressed confidence that the people would welcome this initiative. He also invited suggestions to strengthen and improve the platform. He hoped that everyone would join hands through this platform to take the country forward, and to meet the aspirations of the poorest of the poor. He said he was confident of success in this mission, because he recognized the strength and capability of 125 crore Indians.

The Prime Minister said he looked forward to receiving the suggestions, views and ideas of the people.

The platform - MyGov - presents an opportunity to the citizens to both ‘Discuss' and ‘Do.' There are multiple theme-based discussions on MyGov where a wide range of people would share their thoughts and ideas. Further, any idea shared by a contributor will also be discussed on these discussion forums, allowing constructive feedback and interaction.

For those who wish to go beyond discussions and wish to contribute on the ground, MyGov offers several avenues to do so. Citizens can volunteer for various tasks and submit their entries. These tasks would then be reviewed by other members and experts. Once approved, these tasks can be shared by those who complete the task and by other members on MyGov. Every approved task would earn credit points for completing the task.

National Informatics Centre (NIC), Department of Electronics and Information Technology (DeitY) would implement and manage the platform “MyGov” which would facilitate Citizen Engagement in Good Governance.

Groups and corners are an important part of MyGov. The platform has been divided into various groups namely Clean Ganga, Girl Child Education, Clean India, Skilled India, Digital India, Job Creation. Each group consists of online and onground tasks that can be taken up by the contributors. The objective of each group is to bring about a qualitative change in that sphere through people's participation.

The Minister for Communication and IT, Law and Justice, Mr Ravi Shankar Prasad, and senior officers of the Government of India were present at the launch of the platform.