PIB Website to Be Revamped; Officials to Get Smartphones, Laptops

Officials of the Press Information Bureau are being provided smartphones and laptops to enable them to effectively use technology for dissemination of information, the government Tuesday said, which is also revamping the PIB's website.

In a written reply to a question in Rajya Sabha, Minister of State for Information and Broadcasting Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore said adequate provisions have been made in the scheme 'Modernisation of PIB' to equip the officers with laptops and smartphones.

"PIB's officers are being equipped with laptops/ smartphones to enable them to effectively use Information Technology to disseminate information," Rathore said in his reply.

He also said that PIB's website is also being revamped. He further said that video-conferencing facilities are also being installed to carry out the live-streaming of press conferences by important newsmakers.

The minister was responding to a question on the use of state-of-the-art technology by various departments under the I&B ministry.

PIB was unfortunately most recently in the news for 'Photoshopping' an image of Prime Minister Narendra Modi. It caused a storm in a teacup as people on social media observed that it had clearly been edited. A statement issued by the PIB later clarified that this was done in error, and was regrettable. However, while the statement called it an error of judgement that led to images being merged, it looks like this might actually be a fairly standard practice, as another image from the PIB archive appears to be an edited image of former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh