India Among Top 10 Countries in Digital Diplomacy: Report

In a resounding testimonial to the government's public diplomacy efforts, India has been ranked among the top 10 countries in terms of its digital diplomacy performance, according to a global research and advocacy platform.

"India has been ranked in the top 10 nations in terms of its digital diplomacy performance over the last year by Diplomacy Live, a global research, advocacy, consulting and training platform," external affairs ministry spokesman Vikas Swarup said on Wednesday.

"India and Mexico are the only two countries from the developing world in this list," he said.

Despite a modest budget in public diplomacy, the external affairs ministry's Facebook page with more than 1.2 million followers has come second only to the US state department among foreign ministries in the world.

This includes the ministry's companion page, Public Diplomacy, which alone accounts for some 850,000 followers.

On Twitter, the official spokesperon's account along with the Public Diplomacy's account has over 1.2 million followers.

On YouTube, the ministry's video content has 40,000 subscribers and 30 million minutes viewed.

The ministry is also available on Google Plus, Flickr, Instagram, and Soundcloud platforms.

"These combined platforms have a followership in excess of four million and an average monthly reach in excess of 20 million," Swarup said.

The ministry's mobile app has seen over 150,000 downloads on Android and iOS platforms.

Over 95 percent of India's mission and posts abroad are available on Facebook and 60 percent on Twitter.

Swarup said the online space played a critical role in crisis situations, including evacuation efforts from Yemen and Libya and during the earthquake in Nepal in April last year.