Telangana is perhaps the first State in India to experiment with ‘Twitter governance’, a model of governance which uses the social media site for outreach. Under this set-up, citizens facing health, social or civic issues post their concerns on the microblogging site and tag officials. Their problems are quickly resolved and news of this is often amplified by sections of the mainstream media.
At the heart of this set-up is the State Industry and Commerce Minister, K.T. Rama Rao, who is known by his handles @KTR, @KTRoffice and @KTRTRS. Mr. Rao has a reputation for quickly responding to concerns. He tags the officials concerned to ensure that necessary action is taken. Besides responding to citizens, Mr. Rao even reached out to the CEO of Tesla, Elon Musk, asking him to set up a Tesla unit in the State. “Our state is a champion in sustainability initiatives & a top notch business destination in India,” he tweeted on January 14. Earlier, he successfully got Kitex Garments to set up a unit in Warangal by using Twitter to communicate with the company officials.
The @KTRoffice handle, which is operated by the Minister’s social media team, addresses healthcare and social issues. At the height of the migrant and food crisis during the first two waves of the COVID-19 pandemic, the Minister’s team was very efficient.
