Samachara Bharathi held a grand event titled Social Media Sangamam (5th Edition) on Sunday 26th February 2023 at Patel Hall, Keshav Memorial campus, Narayanguda, Bhagyanagar.
This event had a three-panel discussion about the current state of social media including both its strength and abuse as far as information outreach is concerned and how we should be making proper use of this channel.
The opening session was conducted by Shri Gopal Reddy who delved into the details of India’s GDP and the rise and fall during the period dating 1925 to 2014 and also how we have now risen to 6th position in the world.
Shri Amarnath ji who introduced the Panel consisting of Shri G.N.Rao – retired Director General of DRDO (PC & SI), Smt. Sirisha Kasinadhuni – CEO of one of the leading AI tech companies in India – Empiezo IT Solutions, Shri Kalpesh Joshi ji, Chief Editor, Vishwa Samvad Kendra Devgiri, and Shri. Hitesh Shankar ji, Chief Editor, Panchajanya and a veteran in many news publishing houses.
Sampoorna Atmanirbharta
Shri. G.N. Rao talked about the advances that Bharat has made from being a technology buyer to a technology provider in the space of defense and space technology. Citing examples of how the scientists and think tanks have saved the country millions of dollars worth of accessories when the Rafael fighter jet was custom fitted with the 100% Indigenous Astra missiles. He briefly mentioned Pinaka multi-barrel rocket launcher, World’s most agile Arjun tank, Ak-203 assault rifles, SDR handheld and backpack radios, Mechanized vehicles from Tata, UAVs like Nishaan, Lakshya and Rustom, Tejas LCA and Shakti Anti-Satellite defense system. These were all the outcomes of Atmanirbhar Bharat. He also emphasized the fact that we need to start manufacturing a lot of products that we still import.
All money goes into one pocket.
Smt. Shirisha talked about how she had encountered the westernization of our culture in the tech industry, She delved into the fact around Social media tools really being free citing examples like WhatsApp and Google wherein the data about every aspect that we save like photos, events are captured and used to feed machine learning algorithms which are then served back as intelligent products. In a way, the Data oil that we freely provide is sold to us for a cost. E-commerce platforms have AI bots providing customer ratings and feedback which are used to boost consumer likelihood of purchase. these are sponsored programs by MNCs to boost sales. She questioned the audience about how many of us know that multiple brands of detergent are all part of the same multi-national company which acts as the umbrella. However social media campaigns and advertisements are alluding to this fact which many of us consumers are unaware of.
Banjara MahaKumbh
Shri Kalpesh ji presented the audience at a mega social event called Banjara MahaKumbh which was held in Godri, Jalgaon district of Maharashtra. The first-ever gathering of the nomadic tribes cutting across 7 states of India had participants crossing 14 lakhs with more than 150 seers and more than 3000 volunteers.
With a population of about a crore in Maharashtra, the Banjara community is still largely confined to its tandas (colonies). Banjaras also have a sizeable presence in Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Karnataka, Chhattisgarh, Gujarat, Haryana, Punjab and Delhi, adding up to an estimated 15 crore in all.
The gathering had many discourses by the seers who communicated the message from Swami Sevalal Maharaj and also clarified the misinformation spread by both conversion factories and political parties for vote bank politics.
Kalpesh ji talked about the significance of this MahaKumbh which clearly unmasked the faultlines created by the conversion factories such as location (Tanda), language (Gormati), religion (Gor Dhati) and the threats of Roti-Beti, atheism, child marriage, addiction, illiteracy and economic backwardness.
(Un) Social media
Hitesh Shankar ji in his pristine Hindi enthralled the gathering by starting with a statement if the social media is really Un-Social underling the abuse of the medium.
He delved into the decline of the print media to a mere 13% whereas the digital media claimed the lions share in the media channel market. He said the media houses are now opting for omnichannel broadcast strategies.
He gave examples of how news in today’s context is delivered as False information, misinformation and mal-information. He explained the reasons behind the intentional, unintentional degradation of the authenticity of news being due to dwindling revenues, race to TRP and the urge to deliver the breaking news aka sensationalization thus leading to a new way of news storytelling. He cited how Alt-news founder Muhamad Zubair was funded by Anti-India George Soros and Arundhati Roy and the entire episode of Anti-CAA and Farm bill protests were escalated to resemble an international issue.
Demystifying the myth that Digital Transformation requires hi-tech infrastructure, he shared how his team at Panchajanya has undertaken a low-budget initiative and delivered a docuseries called Vibhajan ki Viveshika and won many accolades. He closed his session by mentioning that the media is responsible for the news that they deliver, there is a need to be socially responsible and not just focus on sensations without facts being checked.
The closing session was jointly conducted by Shri Rajgopal ji (Samachar Bharathi) and Shri Ayush Ji (Dakshina Madhya Kshetra, Prachara Pramukh, RSS)
Ayush Ji mentioned the traditional three R’s of Reading, Writing and Arithmetic are replaced in the social media context to Reject, Rebel and Rewrite (Facts) which is a very toxic way of outreach. He cited examples of how nationalism is being limited to the country’s boundaries (Territorial Nationalism) but missing the need to have a true feeling of Cultural pride.
We are trained in schools, colleges and workplaces to be secular. He cited examples of how the world is bringing the net-neutral effect of LGBT, Living relations and total disruption of the social fabric and leading to the loss of cultural values. He emphasized the need to have a cultural identity and propagation of Indic values.
We should never talk about classification such as Adivasi, Graam-vasi, or Nagar-vasi but should identify everyone as Bharat-vasi.
Conclusion
The event was a grand success where all spheres of society participated including a great number of women, people from the media, students, professionals from HR, Technology, NGOs and Spiritual organizations.
Pics – Janahitha Seva Trust Team
