Chidambaram will be quizzed today on Google Hangout
Chidambaram will interact with citizens on Google Hangout at 8 pm
For the first time ever, Union finance minister P. Chidambaram will reach out to citizens through social media platform Google+ Hangout on Monday over his budget proposals and will take questions.
Mr Chidambaram will respond to citizens’ questions at 8 pm by joining multi- party video conference on Google+ Hangout.
This is for the first time that any Union Cabinet minister is using this medium to interact with the citizens.
This is a powerful communications platform and is accessible across the world for internet users. Google+ Hangout allows up to 10 people participate at a point of time.
One can later share the hangout on YouTube or live stream it using Hangout.
Mr Chidambaram will be joined by a group of panelists such as Mr Jahangir Aziz, senior Asia economist and India chief economist at JP Morgan, Anand Mahindra, chairman of the Mahindra and Mahindra Group, Amit Singhal, senior vice- president of Google Inc and Manish Chokhani, MD and CEO, Axis Capital. The session will be moderated by senior journalist Senthil Chengal- varayan.
Citizens will be able to watch the budget Google+ Hangout live through the Google India + Page at google. com/+ GoogleIndia or on the InConversation YouTube channel.
Before the Hangout, the citizens can submit their questions to the finance minister either by uploading a video or commenting on the YouTube channel, or through the Google India + Page and tagging text or a video with the hashtag # asktheFM.
Throughout the world politicians are using social media to reach out to the general public.
US President Barack Obama has successfully used Twitter to reach out to his voters. After winning the US elections for the second time, Mr Obama’s Twitter picture hugging Michelle Obama with the caption ‘ four more years’ was one of the most retweeted Twitter post.
In India, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh is also on Twitter.
In his interview to PTI, meanwhile, the finance minister warned tax evaders and said that a huge amount of data is being mined to go after them and ruled out any amnesty scheme for defaulters.
“No. In income tax, there is no case for amnesty. Because now almost all returns are online except a small category which was exempt. We have a huge amount of data which is being mined. Therefore, there is no case for amnesty today,” the finance minister said.
He pointed out that no tax burden had been imposed in the budget on any category of people other than a “small burden” of 10 per cent surcharge on relatively affluent 42,800 people with incomes of over ` 1 crore a year, he pointed out.
He also allayed fears that tax on super rich would drive away people saying, “Nobody will move anywhere. I assure you. Nowhere in the world you can afford to employ so many domestic helps. Wellness does not only come from wealth. It comes from host of other services that we have in place.”