Narendra Modi meets Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg.
The Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi had a sit-down meeting with Facebook Chief Operating Officer Sheryl Sandberg in New Delhi on Thursday July 3, 2014. Sandberg who is on a 4-day official visit to India will meet various other Indian politicians and businessmen.
The Indian Prime Minister is no stanger to the social media, unlike the earlier government leaders, Modi had made immense use of social media tools like Facebook and Twitter. His social media campaign had a huge hand in his thumping victory at the 2014 Indian general elections.
While talking to the Facebook COO, Sheryl Sandberg at the meeting, Modi broached the subject about how Facebook can help his government to attain a greater reach in matters of spreading public awareness.
Hygiene was an issue that Modi had addressed at his Varanasi speech and to further this cause he took to Facebook, announcing that “to commemorate Mahatma Gandhi’s 150th birth anniversary year with a special focus on cleanliness and I spoke to Ms Sandberg on how Facebook can assist us in this endeavour”.
Reports say that Sandberg has assured Modi that Facebook would help the government in its aim.
Facebook is currently available in nine Indian languages, features such as increasing the multiplicity of languages and local content can help in pumping up reach amongst users in India.
Sandberg in a post of her own wrote Modi “believes that direct communication with people all over the world is critical to effective governance and he plans to continue using Facebook and other social media to communicate with the people of India and the world”
Ranked in Time magazine’s list of 100 most influential people (2012), Sandberg addressed a group of business women in the capital and spoke about bridging the gender gap in the workplace.
The top woman honcho also has her own book titled ‘Lean In: Women, Work and Will to Lead’, which she gifted a copy of to Communications and IT minister Ravi Shankar Prasad.
