Details sought from ministries on tiffin meetings, use of GeM portal, social media

New Delhi: Details have been sought from ministries about the progress of steps suggested by Prime Minister Narendra Modi such as the use of GeM portal, holding tiffin meetings with officials and using social media to publicise the Centre's initiatives, sources said Monday.

To make governance more efficient and transparent, Prime Minister Modi on several occasions suggested his Council of Ministers to ensure that the procurement by their ministries is done through the government's e-commerce platform – the GeM portal.

He has also suggested they hold regular meetings with officials for interchanging of ideas over tiffin. Modi has also stressed using social media to disseminate information about the government's decisions and reach out to people, sources said.

They further said now, details have been sought from ministries on the implementation and progress of these measures which were aimed at making governance more transparent and efficient.

Last year, the Modi government divided the council of ministers into eight groups to develop technology-based resources, create a pool of professionals for recruiting in their teams and other similar initiatives to be adopted in the offices of all ministers' to bring more transparency and improve efficiency, they said.

This exercise of dividing the ministers into eight groups was done following 'Chintan Shivirs' (brainstorming sessions) that were chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, with each meeting lasting for nearly five hours.

A total of five such sessions were held - one each on Personal Efficiency, Focused Implementation, Ministry Functioning and Stakeholder Engagement, Party Coordination and Effective Communication and the last one was on Parliamentary practices.