More than 1000 politicians, political parties, local (district) government authorities and administrative officials across different states join the Public app
As the country adapts to stay at home due to the COVID-19 outbreak and the lockdown, people are spending the majority of their time on smartphones to stay updated and informed about the situation around the country. One app that is helping people stay connected with their communities is ‘Public’ app, a location based social network, that helps people stay connected with their towns and villages. The Public app, during COVID times, has seen an uptake and growth of over 100 % in downloads, across towns and cities. In pure numbers, there have been over 3 lakh downloads per day.
Interestingly, more than 1000 politicians, administrative officials and local (district) government authorities like police personnel and medical officers, across the states of Rajasthan, Bihar , Jharkhand, UP and MP have joined the app to reach out to people and curb any kind of misinformation around coronavirus. Authorities and leaders are using the app to combat fake news and rumours that are being spread around COVID19 and to hear grievances of people to ensure everyone’s safety. Additionally, major political parties and associations at national and regional level such as BJP, National Students Union of India, Janata Dal united, Suheldev Bhartiya Samaj Party, Madhya Pradesh Youth Congress, among others, have also been using this app to connect with communities.
Authorities and leaders are using the app to educate people around COVID-19, various government policies and listening to grievances of people to solve their problems. Since each district faces different types of problems, authorities are using the app to share specific instructions with people.
Some of the politicians who are actively using the app to communicate and engage with their communities are Hema Malini, Varun Gandhi, Kamal Nath, C.P. Joshi, Chandrabhan Singh, Bhopinder S Hooda, Deepender Singh Hooda, Om Prakash Dhankar, and Dr Alok Ranjan.
State
|
No Of Entities
|
Some Of The Prominent Names
|
Uttar Pradesh
|
936
|
BJP Uttar Pradesh, Hema Malini, Anupriya Patel, Shivpal Singh Yadav, Varun Gandhi
|
863
|
Janata Dal United, Dr. Ashok Kumar Singh, Niranjan Ram, Dr. Alok Ranjan
| |
Jharkhand
|
206
|
Pradeep Yadav, Abhijit Raj (Vice-president, Jharkhand Youth Congress), Pranav Verma, Madhu Kora
|
Rajasthan
|
234
|
CP Joshi, Chandrabhan Singh Aakya, Jagasiram Koli,
|
Madhya Pradesh
|
236
|
Madhya Pradesh Youth Congress, NSUI Madhya Pradesh, Shivraj Singh Dabi, Kamal Nath
|
A few videos uploaded on the platform that have brought an impact on the society are:
https://public.app/s/vYCFG
https://public.app/s/nQtfr
https://public.app/s/e2LYQ
In the last month, the Public app has seen a huge surge in downloads amongst citizens in districts and states like Rajasthan, Haryana, Bihar, Jharkhand, UP, MP, Haryana, Chhattisgarh and Gujarat .
The ‘Public’ app allows people to view and share happenings around them enabling real-time local updates, especially in the Tier II and Tier III cities where people record videos of happenings nearby and post them on the platform to inform the community. One million videos are being created every month on Public empowering the local community to stay connected and informed.
National, April 27’ 2020