By A Correspondent

The World IT Forum 2012 came to a close on Wednesday after two days of deliberating on the role of ICT in agriculture, education, health and e-governance, within the overall theme of ICT for sustainable human development.

On the second day, during the Plenary Session on ‘Networking – connecting people’, R Chandrashekhar, Secretary, Department of Telecommunications, Ministry of Communications and IT acknowledged the need for the government to have a systematic engagement on social media. He said the government has prepared the draft of a Social Media framework.

Underlining the importance of social networking, Mr Chandrashekhar said there are issues and programmes like NREGA, Food Security Bill and e-governance projects where it is imperative for the government to engage the public through consultations. This is where the government can leverage the power of social media.