Now, give a missed call to receive tweets from Indian government departments on your mobile phones

Prime Minister Narendra Modi (@narendramodi) took another step in his Digital India initiative by launching ‘Twitter Samvad’, a service aimed to boost the nation’s e-governance plans by helping government bodies and leaders communicate directly with citizens on a daily basis via Tweets and SMS on their mobile devices.

Through Twitter Samvad, every day a set of curated Tweets will be delivered from the government and leaders’ accounts to mobile users across the country as SMS. Updates on government services, policies and activities can be delivered to any user with a mobile device signed up for the service with each of the 16 launch partners. Anyone with a mobile phone, with our without a data plan, can register for the service by giving a missed call to a unique number for each of the partners.

Twitter Samvad can also be used during the time of emergency with the ability to deliver live updates by government bodies including time sensitive information like law and order situations as well as details about any rescue efforts.

Twitter CEO Dick Costolo, who met Prime Minister Modi to discuss areas of collaboration, said, “Based on Indian technological innovation, Twitter Samvad is dedicated and specially built for the largest democracy of the world. The Lok Sabha election of 2014 was the first-ever Twitter Election in India and we want to continue contributing to the development of digital governance in India. As part of the Prime Minister’s Digital India initiative, this Tweet-powered service enables citizens to be the first to know about the government’s actions by receiving political content in real-time on their mobile devices anywhere in the country.”

The company is demonstrating its commitment to the Indian market by launching Twitter Samvad during the Twitter CEO’s first-ever visit to India. Rishi Jaitly, Twitter’s Market Director for India and Southeast Asia, said, “We are proud to have launched a service here that is for the people and of the people. This can eventually give every political leader and every government organization a mobile microphone to connect with each Indian, whether in Imphal or in Diu or in Leh or in Pudducherry.”

Twitter Samvad is based on the platform provided by ZipDial, an Indian company recently acquired by Twitter, making this the company’s first Indian service launched using indigenous technology.

Here’s how Twitter Samvad will work for users:

1. Users will have to give a missed call to each of the numbers listed above to follow each of their Twitter accounts. For example, for Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the number is 011 3006 3006.

2. Immediately after placing the missed call, users will start to receive a curated set of Tweets throughout the day keeping them in touch with leaders and government agencies.

3. In case of emergency or urgent public announcements, account owners (leaders, government agencies, disaster management cell) can instantly send an update on a given situation to all registered users.

Here is a list of a 16 government partners who are participating in the launch of Twitter Samvad: