Union Minister for Finance, Corporate Affairs, and Information & Broadcasting, Arun Jaitley has said that the Government Calendar -2015 provided a platform for converging the two key flagship schemes of the Government - ‘Swachh Bharat’ and ‘Digital India’. The Calendar combined the conventional and technological modes of communicating the initiatives of the Government. While the theme of ‘Swachh Bharat’ was portrayed visually in the conventional mode, the Mobile Application of the Calendar reiterated the government’s vision of taking the idea of ‘Digital India’ forward. Shri Jaitley stated this while releasing the official Calendar of the Government for the year 2015 along with its Digital version here today.
Speaking on the occasion, Shri Jaitley said, the digital version of the Calendar 2015 also reflected the vision of the government in taking forward the benefit of technology in information dissemination as no one could defy the growth and movement of technology. Technology today was operating on a real time basis. Important information related to Government communication was embedded in the Digital version thereby providing critical information to the people at large. The Minister also lauded the efforts of Directorate of Advertisement and Visual Publicity, DAVP, for developing the Digital version of the Calendar with socially relevant messages which would be accessible on real time basis through mobile phones.
The Mobile App of the Calendar would provide access to the latest tweets from the PMO, the YouTube Channel of the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting, and the Press Releases on PIB website. In addition to being a window for all websites of Government of India, this informative application would serve as a planner to the users bringing news updates from AIR and DD News. The Mobile App was developed for Android platforms initially which would be made available on other mobile platforms also in due course of time. This year’s calendar has been developed on the theme of “Clean India Green India” with focus on “Swachhta” and environment issues. The January page of the Calendar displayed the launch of the “Swachh Bharat Mission by Hon’ble Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi.
While the February page carried the message of ‘Swachh Vidyalaya’ and ‘Bal Swachhta Abhiyan’, the March page was designed on the theme, ‘Rejuvenating Rivers.’ The April Page of the Calendar portrayed “Clean Hospitals: A Healthy India,” May depicted the cleanliness drive of Railways, June focussed on Rejuvenation of the River Ganges, ‘Namami Gange’, and July on people’s participation in Swachh Bharat Movement. The August page was on the theme of Clean Villages; September month highlighted Solar Energy as clean and renewable source of energy; October depicted Wind Power as pollution free source of energy and November emphasized the need to preserve Himalayan Ranges. Wildlife conservation was the theme for the December month. Minister of State for Information and Broadcasting, Shri Rajyavardhan Rathore, and Secretary, Ministry of I&B, Shri Bimal Julka along with senior officials of the I&B Ministry were also present on the occasion.