Narendra Modi - App Review

             App rating: ★★★☆☆

In today’s digital world, everything is at our fingertips, courtesy smartphones and the internet. The Prime Minister of our country has used this to benefit us and has launched a mobile app bearing his name. He is now using mobile applications to engage with citizens, which is a welcome sign of changing times. This app, aimed at keeping us updated with various schemes and plans that the government is executing, also keeps us informed about recent events covered by the media as well.

We downloaded the application and explored it. So, here’s a review of the official Narendra Modi app.

You begin by downloading the app from the Google Play Store. Once you install the app, enter your phone number and date of birth. You can access the menu from the top right.

The app’s layout consists of tabs, that cover media coverage, infographics and a new concept of ‘my network’. While the media coverage tab is constantly updating for any material related to the government’s activities and updates, infographics includes all the quantitative data structures related to the new bills, taxes and laws passed. My network is an area where you can follow various ministers, and public information pages to keep up with everything they post. It is almost like a mini-Twitter platform where you can retweet (in this case, repost) their posts, and add your opinion on things that are of importance to the government.

The date selector makes it easy to choose the date, month and year with a slider. Next, in the ‘News’ section, you can choose between ‘Recent’ or ‘Popular’ news items by setting the button on the top right.

You can get updates and watch the Mann Ki Baat programme by the PM. You can even write to the Prime Minister and give ideas and suggestions to “be an active partner in nation building.” The app also gives you a glimpse of all that is communicated across social media channels such as Facebook and Twitter, the PM’s blog, and his speeches.

A new feature of the app is that they have introduced a “demonetisation survey” which shows up at the top of the screen when you open the app. This survey was introduced in order to create a sense of transparency between the public and the government as it has this survey and all other feedback provided by the public relayed back to the government agencies directly.  From the interviews given by the PM, to government data, you’ll get access to it all. It’s Narendra Modi everywhere!

And yes, you get points for interacting with the application. We wonder if these points would result in gratification for the end user. However, the app’s user interface has some glitches. When someone tries to open the survey, it sometimes fails to connect to the internet and the link fails to open up and the application crashes. We hope the data captured by the app is secure and isn’t hacked in the future.

The collaborative approach taken by PM Narendra Modi in building a mobile application for the PMO (Prime Minister's Office) is a good step indeed.

-Garvi Thakkar