I&B Minister releases Annual Reference India/Bharat 2017

 Minister releases Swachhta Pakhwada Report Card

Report focusses on Office Space retrieval, reduction in grievances and auctioning of disposed goods

“Reliability, Dependability & Credibility of information” is the “Hallmark of this Government”. Following this vision, India Year Book 2017 provided a treasure trove of knowledge with authentic information about India, surveying the country from the prism of accuracy. It was essential to bring out books, journals, magazines in all National languages in order to reach out to new generation. The Publications Division provided the ideal platform to inculcate the reading habits amongst the people by publishing books on diverse aspects of Indian Panorama and Heritage Minister for Information & Broadcasting Shri Venkaiah Naidu mentioned this at the release function of Annual Reference India2017/Bharat 2017 and launch of online digital Library by Publications Division here today.

The Minister while releasing the electronic version of the Annual India Year Book, said that the e-version provided latest technical features and conformed to the best international standards. The e-book had a variety of reader-friendly features like searchable content, referencing, and was priced at 25% less than the print books. He added that taking forward the Governments digital push, the Publications Division has converted over 750 books into digital format, and is poised to meet the 12th Plan Scheme target of digitizing 1000 books by end of March 2017. The Minister also launched the Online Digital Library created by Publications Division which has a repository of over 750 books, with a wide range of titles that was available for free browsing to visitors at DPD Book Gallery.

Shri Naidu also emphasized the importance of digital way of life and its benefits. He mentioned that digital transfer of knowledge, digital transfer of currency would ensure arresting of black money and corruption in the country. 

Shri Naidu also gave an overview of the activities and initiatives taken by the Ministry of I&B and its Media Units during the two weeks Swachhta Pakhwada for the period 16^th to 31^st Jan, 2017.  Ministry of I&B had proactively planned a theme based Swachhta Calendar for period August 2016 to July 2017 to give a thrust to the Swachh Bharat Abhiyan. The Ministry expanded the concept of Swachhta to bring out innovative ideas to not only give importance to office cleanliness but also to weed out old files, furniture’s, clear old court cases, pending files, service records, inter-ministerial and government communication apart from identifying old, unused items that can be auctioned.

The Minister highlighted the steps taken by the Ministry to retrieve space after disposal of old furniture, fixtures, electronic and electrical waste. He mentioned that the Ministry had been successful in retrieving 60,624 sq. feet of space after the special campaign was launched from September to November 2016.  A sum of Rs. 14, 21,484 was realized after auctioning of disposed goods. On the redressal of grievances, Shri Naidu said that a total of 4132 grievances had been dispose off during the last one year.

The Minister also mentioned the innovative ways that were taken to seek people participation in the mission through Swachh Bharat Short Film Festival, street plays, constitution of “Best Section Award on Swachhta” by the Ministry. A special 5 minutes Bulletin - Swachhta Samachar was also started on all weekdays by DD news. The platform of Radio including community Radio was used extensively by IIMC to propagate the Swachhta message. 

Col. Rajyavardhan Rathore, Minister of State for I&B, Shri Ajay Mittal, Secretary I&B, Shri Parameswaran Iyer, Secretary, Ministry of Drinking Water & Sanitation and senior officers from Ministry were also present during the occasion.

CP/GV