Govt geeks go hi-tech to mine sentiment on Web

NEW DELHI: Hidden away from public view in the heart of Delhi, a team of seven or eight software geeks is analysing everything social media users say online about politics and the government.

They’re tracking reaction to events ranging from mundane cabinet ministers’ press conferences to the spicy controversy over Union HRD minister Smriti Irani’s academic degrees or a muchwatched speech by Rashtriya Swayamsewak

Sangh chief Mohan Bhagwat.

The goal: Provide “structured” feedback with social media analytics to the prime minister’s office, top bureaucrats and intelligence agencies with a view to helping the government understand public attitudes to some of its big policies and improve on them. Welcome to “Sentiment Analysis”, born out of a realisation that just poring over heaps of newspapers every morning to take stock is passe. Many western governments, such as those of the US and UK, have long watched their social media spaces — sometimes sparking privacy concerns — and given how new-media savvy PM Narendra Modi is, it’s no surprise that India has followed suit.

The team, from a private software company, is located at the information and broadcasting ministry’s headquarters in Shastri Bhawan in a room that’s out of bounds to visitors.

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