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    How the Indian Government can use Social Media as a Force Multiplier

    How the Indian Government can use Social Media as a Force Multiplier

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    @amitranjan
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    #Citizenservices#Egovernance#Citizenengagement#Govtech#Indiangovt#Tools#India#Digitalindia#Socialmedia
    june 2020 a development monthly ` 22
ISSN-0971-8400 YOJANA
Focus
Industry 4.0
Dr Ranjeet Mehta
SPECIAL ARTICLE
Covid-19 Virology
Dr Sarah Cherian
Dr Priya Abraham
Social Media: 
The Force Multiplier
Amit Ranjan
AIM: Fostering Innovation
R Ramanan & Team
Technology
    1/6
    16 YOJANA June 2020
hen the World Wide 
Web was born in 
the 1990s, its initial 
users (referred to as 
“early adopters”) were from the 
technology community–engineers, 
innovators, academicians, researchers 
etc. Governments were not amongst 
these early adopters–they took to 
it only later. But when they did, it 
came as a resounding signal of the 
internet’s mainstream impact, as also 
an endorsement for its relevance, 
scale, and transformative role across 
the world.
Three decades later, the internet 
has been truly adopted by governments 
across the globe with full gusto. Social 
media has become a game changer in 
the way federal, regional, and local 
government agencies are engaging, 
interacting, and communicating with 
citizens. 
The Indian Government has been 
at the forefront of these emerging 
trends–it has rapidly adopted the latest 
digital technologies and embraced new 
forms of social media communication 
tools in the discharge of its 
governance and administrative duties. 
The Government of India’s ambitious 
Social Media: The Force Multiplier 
Amit Ranjan
The beauty of the new-age social media tools lies in their universality and pervasiveness. They are 
easy to install and use and have a simplified user experience. While the physical world is constrained 
by the limitations of distances and boundaries, the virtual world is all encompassing–indeed we are 
all part of a continuous global village.
e-GOVERNANCE
W Digital India Programme is aimed at 
transforming India into a digitally 
empowered society and knowledge 
economy. This initiative is anchored 
by the Ministry of Electronics and 
Information Technology (MeitY),
but is implemented across the federal 
framework of the country covering 
central, state, and local organisations 
in both the public and private space. 
The beauty of the new age social 
media tools lies in their universality 
and pervasiveness. They are easy to 
install and use and have a simplified 
user experience. While the physical 
world is constrained by the limitations 
of distances and boundaries, the 
virtual world is all encompassing–
indeed we are all part of a continuous 
global village. As Bill Gates famously 
said - “The Internet is becoming the 
town square for the global village of 
tomorrow”. All this has meant that 
Indians coming from different socioeconomic backgrounds, irrespective 
of their educational levels, are able 
to use and benefit from applications 
like WhatsApp, Facebook, Twitter, 
Instagram, LinkedIn–these have all 
become household names. Most of 
these apps are available in multiple 
Indian vernacular languages (besides 
English). Inexpensive mobile phones, 
cheap bandwidth and data-plans, 
vernacular content–all these factors 
acting in consort have helped in 
amplifying social media’s reach and 
impact even in the rural hinterlands 
of the country beyond the large cities 
and towns. 
Most government departments 
and agencies now maintain an active 
presence on the popular social media 
channels. They have created official 
accounts, have large number of 
followers, and regularly share news 
updates, departmental notifications, 
or public announcements on their 
channels. Not just departmental 
accounts even executive officers, 
bureaucrats, politicians, ministers 
etc. are active on social media and 
regularly cross share (or retweet) 
each others’ updates. The content 
they share can be of any form–videos, 
images, presentations, text, pdfs, GIFs 
etc, though videos are often the most 
engaging format and evoke the best 
viewer response.
Here is a compilation of twelve 
ways in which Indian Government 
agencies are using social media as a 
The author is the founder of Slideshare and Lead Product Architect, National e-Governance Division. Email: amitranjan25@gmail.com
    2/6
    YOJANA June 2020 17
force multiplier in their work:
Crisis / Disaster Management
Whenever there is a big, 
unexpected crisis, citizens tend 
to panic and look for directions 
and advisories from their elected 
representatives. The government 
machinery springs into action and they 
need to emphatically communicate to 
citizens the SOP (standard operating 
procedures) to be adopted. What 
adds to the heat of the moment is 
the possibility of (panic induced) 
rumours that may lead citizens astray. 
Social media is now increasingly 
being used by governments to reach 
out to citizens during such crisis. Two 
recent examples bear out this trend–
the first one is a cyclone alert from 
the National Disaster Management 
Agency (NDMA) on India’s eastern 
coasts (in the state of Odisha), while 
the other one is an advisory from 
PIB (Indian Government’s Press 
Information Bureau) to citizens for the 
lockdown imposed due to COVID-19. 
Citizen Engagement
One of the best roles social 
media can play is to act as a medium 
for continuous engagement between 
governments and its citizens. Citizens 
should feel their governments are 
participatory and welcoming, and 
be able to contribute their ideas, 
comments and suggestions in 
policy formulation and program 
implementation. The Indian 
Government’s MyGov platform has 
proven to be popular with citizens 
in this regard. Apart from MyGov, 
other social media channels used 
by the Indian Government (Twitter, 
Facebook, WhatsApp, Instagram)
also promote citizen engagement, 
participation, and transparency in this 
important relationship. 
Citizen Grievances & Support
Social media has emerged as a 
very impactful, real-time channel for 
citizen grievances and support. Most 
citizen services (specially the public 
facing ones) maintain active accounts 
on social media and encourage 
citizens to directly reach out with their 
grievances. Given all this is happening 
in full public view, there is pressure 
on the service providers to resolve the 
issue (if possible, in real-time, else 
with some delay), while appearing 
fair, transparent, and responsive for 
everyone to see. Sometimes when 
the query gets resolved quickly, 
citizens express their gratitude and 
elation immediately. This expression 
can act as an authentic validation or 
testimonial for the service. The two 
examples below are common on 
social media these days–the first one 
is about a traffic complaint to Mumbai 
Police, while the other one is a realtime grievance filed by a traveller 
on Indian Railways to the Railways 
Bengaluru Division.
Law & Order
Amongst governmental agencies, 
police departments are arguably one 
ments a
Figure 1
    3/6
    18 YOJANA June 2020
of the most active users of social 
media channels. This is because 
their jobs hover around real-time, 
public facing situations, which are 
frequently subject to rumours, false 
alerts etc. They are required to display 
trust in their public dealings and 
communicate unequivocally. The 
Police frequently needs to make public 
announcements–something that social 
media is well-suited for. This Delhi 
Police advisory on Twitter (Figure 1) 
is a telling example how police uses 
social media to alert citizens about 
circulating rumours.
Hiring & Recruitment
Some government agencies are 
using social media hiring channels 
for attracting best-in-class talent 
for their job vacancies. “LinkedIn” 
is a popular online recruitment 
platform–here is an example of a 
vacancy posted by NISG (National 
Institute of Smart Government) for 
technical positions in UIDAI (Unique 
Identification Authority of India) 
which runs the Government of India’s 
Aadhaar program. LinkedIn offers 
two advantages–it is a publishing tool 
for job postings, and it also has over 
500 million registered users across 
the world (including 62 million Indian 
users). They can readily view these 
vacancies and apply if interested. 
Foreign Relations
Social media bridges the distance 
between nations on the internet. Many 
governments agencies are using social 
media channels effectively to engage 
with their foreign counterparts. 
Embassies and foreign consulates 
are active on Twitter & Facebook, 
engaging with each other or sharing 
important updates to their citizens. 
Below is an example of the Indian 
Government (through their official 
Twitter account) wishing the people of 
Paraguay on their Independence Day 
and how the Indian Government’s 
Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) 
has published all their official Twitter 
handles on the MEA website (https://
mea.gov.in/)
Business & Industry Relations
Government agencies partner 
with businesses, industry bodies and 
trade organisations on a regular basis 
for policy, consultations, networking 
etc. Businesses play a key role in 
driving social media’s impact by 
contributing significantly to the 
internet economy via advertising, 
paid services etc. Many monetisation 
models on the internet (wholly or 
partially) rely on enterprises, B2B 
(business to business) and large 
corporations with large advertising 
and marketing budgets, which 
contributes to the nation’s economy. 
The two examples shared on the left 
exemplify this–the first is a Facebook 
post from Ministry of Commerce 
& Industry showing the Minister 
addressing an industry gathering, 
while the second is an invitation on 
Twitter for an industry summit on 
Education by the Indian Consulate in 
Indonesia.
Live Traffic Updates
Real time traffic updates and 
advisories get regularly shared in the 
metropolitan cities via the local Traffic 
Police social media accounts. These 
updates are helpful to commuters in 
avoiding traffic jams or taking detours 
to save time. Often these live updates 
are picked up by local FM radio 
channels that do their civic bit, by 
sharing it on with live audiences that 
have tuned into the channel while on 
the roads. Here are two examples of 
Delhi Traffic Police sharing updates 
on Twitter for a road blockage, and 
traffic advisory for traffic re-routing 
owing to some festivities. 
Government Procurement
The government (as an entity) 
is the largest producer and buyer of 
goods and services in the country. It’s 
buying (or procurement) is largely
    4/6
    YOJANA June 2020 19
based on open tendering process, 
which gives everyone a chance to 
participate in an unbiased, nondiscriminatory way. Hence, tender 
notices have to be published publicly 
on the main outreach channels. 
Traditionally, tender notices were 
advertised in newspapers; now with 
the advent of e-tendering, these 
notices are increasingly getting posted 
on social media channels as well. The 
two examples above bear testimony 
to this trend–the first one is a tender 
notice from Ministry of Power inviting 
bids for electric cars, while the second 
one is from Ministry of Information 
& Broadcasting’s Chandigarh Bureau 
for digital printing. 
Crowdsourcing Ideas & Innovation
The internet is fundamentally 
participatory in character–people 
openly share their knowledge, skills, 
and experiences in the belief that 
others can benefit from it. Sometimes 
this is free, or there may be some 
incentives for it. Crowdsourcing is 
a popular activity on the internet, 
where you get to tap into the 
collective “wisdom of the crowds”. 
On the left is an example on how 
the Indian Government’s community 
participation platform MyGov is 
leveraging crowdsourcing, by hosting 
a “Logo Design Competition” for 
an upcoming government heritage 
complex. Citizens are invited to 
contribute their logo entries for the 
contest, which has an accompanying 
cash prize to generate excitement and 
motivate participants. 
Citizen Service-Delivery Apps
The government has launched 
various service delivery apps for its 
citizens. Social media is a key channel 
to drive awareness about these apps 
and get people to download them. 
Because these apps are mass targeted, 
the intent is to make them “go viral” 
and spread via “word-of-mouth” 
from person to person. Social media 
channels like Twitter, Facebook, 
WhatsApp are best-suited for this 
virality. The two examples here 
showcase this–DigiLocker is meant 
for digitised documents & certificates, 
while UMANG is like a gateway (or 
a directory) to multiple government 
services. While these apps have their 
individual social media handles, they 
are also promoted by the government 
departments.
Transparency & Accountability
Citizens want ready access to 
government departments and its 
functioning officers. Given the size 
and expanse of the official setup, it 
is often not easy to figure out who is 
the concerned officer-in-charge (in
    5/6
    20 YOJANA June 2020
whose jurisdiction the case falls) and 
their contact details. Social media can 
come to the rescue in some cases. 
Here is an example of how the police 
department in Dima Hasao, one of the 
districts in Assam has publicly shared 
telephone numbers of their top officers 
and their rank and file. Such measures 
reduce bureaucracy, while promoting 
transparency and accountability in the 
eyes of the citizens.
References
1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/
Technology_adoption_life_cycle
2. https://www.telegraph.co.uk/
technology/0/bill-gates-quotes-wordswisdom-microsoft-mogul/microsoftfounder-gates-addresses-session-worldeconomic-forum/
3. https://www.linkedin.com/jobs/
view/1828855148/
4. https://twitter.com/IndianDiplomacy/
status/1260817443234119680
5. https://mea.gov.in/mea-on-twitter.htm
6. https://twitter.com/DimahasaoPolice/
status/1176782269303779328
7. https://www.mygov.in/task/logo-designcompetition-national-maritime-heritagecomplex-lothal/
8. https://twitter.com/dtptraffic/
status/956562337275691008
9. https://twitter.com/dtptraffic/
status/1255344026183761921
10. https://twitter.com/ROBChandigarh/
status/1199640537592033285
11. https://twitter.com/EESL_India/
status/1227097515108917253
12. https://twitter.com/IndianEmbJkt/
status/1158624752497336320
13. https://www.facebook.com/PIB.
Ministryof.Commerce.and.Industry/
posts/2435788706502733
14. https://twitter.com/UmangOfficial_/
status/1230717490377838592
15. https://twitter.com/digilocker_ind/
status/1225288302372089856
16. https://twitter.com/DelhiPolice/
status/797497935734812672
17. https://twitter.com/MumbaiPolice/
status/1174324062455099400
18. https://twitter.com/PIB_India/
status/1262068277871702017
19. https://twitter.com/ndmaindia/
status/1262389983324844033
20. https://play.google.com/store/apps/
details?id=in.mygov.mobile&hl=en_IN
21. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Digital_
India
    6/6

    How the Indian Government can use Social Media as a Force Multiplier

    • 1. june 2020 a development monthly ` 22 ISSN-0971-8400 YOJANA Focus Industry 4.0 Dr Ranjeet Mehta SPECIAL ARTICLE Covid-19 Virology Dr Sarah Cherian Dr Priya Abraham Social Media: The Force Multiplier Amit Ranjan AIM: Fostering Innovation R Ramanan & Team Technology
    • 2. 16 YOJANA June 2020 hen the World Wide Web was born in the 1990s, its initial users (referred to as “early adopters”) were from the technology community–engineers, innovators, academicians, researchers etc. Governments were not amongst these early adopters–they took to it only later. But when they did, it came as a resounding signal of the internet’s mainstream impact, as also an endorsement for its relevance, scale, and transformative role across the world. Three decades later, the internet has been truly adopted by governments across the globe with full gusto. Social media has become a game changer in the way federal, regional, and local government agencies are engaging, interacting, and communicating with citizens. The Indian Government has been at the forefront of these emerging trends–it has rapidly adopted the latest digital technologies and embraced new forms of social media communication tools in the discharge of its governance and administrative duties. The Government of India’s ambitious Social Media: The Force Multiplier Amit Ranjan The beauty of the new-age social media tools lies in their universality and pervasiveness. They are easy to install and use and have a simplified user experience. While the physical world is constrained by the limitations of distances and boundaries, the virtual world is all encompassing–indeed we are all part of a continuous global village. e-GOVERNANCE W Digital India Programme is aimed at transforming India into a digitally empowered society and knowledge economy. This initiative is anchored by the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY), but is implemented across the federal framework of the country covering central, state, and local organisations in both the public and private space. The beauty of the new age social media tools lies in their universality and pervasiveness. They are easy to install and use and have a simplified user experience. While the physical world is constrained by the limitations of distances and boundaries, the virtual world is all encompassing– indeed we are all part of a continuous global village. As Bill Gates famously said - “The Internet is becoming the town square for the global village of tomorrow”. All this has meant that Indians coming from different socioeconomic backgrounds, irrespective of their educational levels, are able to use and benefit from applications like WhatsApp, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn–these have all become household names. Most of these apps are available in multiple Indian vernacular languages (besides English). Inexpensive mobile phones, cheap bandwidth and data-plans, vernacular content–all these factors acting in consort have helped in amplifying social media’s reach and impact even in the rural hinterlands of the country beyond the large cities and towns. Most government departments and agencies now maintain an active presence on the popular social media channels. They have created official accounts, have large number of followers, and regularly share news updates, departmental notifications, or public announcements on their channels. Not just departmental accounts even executive officers, bureaucrats, politicians, ministers etc. are active on social media and regularly cross share (or retweet) each others’ updates. The content they share can be of any form–videos, images, presentations, text, pdfs, GIFs etc, though videos are often the most engaging format and evoke the best viewer response. Here is a compilation of twelve ways in which Indian Government agencies are using social media as a The author is the founder of Slideshare and Lead Product Architect, National e-Governance Division. Email: amitranjan25@gmail.com
    • 3. YOJANA June 2020 17 force multiplier in their work: Crisis / Disaster Management Whenever there is a big, unexpected crisis, citizens tend to panic and look for directions and advisories from their elected representatives. The government machinery springs into action and they need to emphatically communicate to citizens the SOP (standard operating procedures) to be adopted. What adds to the heat of the moment is the possibility of (panic induced) rumours that may lead citizens astray. Social media is now increasingly being used by governments to reach out to citizens during such crisis. Two recent examples bear out this trend– the first one is a cyclone alert from the National Disaster Management Agency (NDMA) on India’s eastern coasts (in the state of Odisha), while the other one is an advisory from PIB (Indian Government’s Press Information Bureau) to citizens for the lockdown imposed due to COVID-19. Citizen Engagement One of the best roles social media can play is to act as a medium for continuous engagement between governments and its citizens. Citizens should feel their governments are participatory and welcoming, and be able to contribute their ideas, comments and suggestions in policy formulation and program implementation. The Indian Government’s MyGov platform has proven to be popular with citizens in this regard. Apart from MyGov, other social media channels used by the Indian Government (Twitter, Facebook, WhatsApp, Instagram) also promote citizen engagement, participation, and transparency in this important relationship. Citizen Grievances & Support Social media has emerged as a very impactful, real-time channel for citizen grievances and support. Most citizen services (specially the public facing ones) maintain active accounts on social media and encourage citizens to directly reach out with their grievances. Given all this is happening in full public view, there is pressure on the service providers to resolve the issue (if possible, in real-time, else with some delay), while appearing fair, transparent, and responsive for everyone to see. Sometimes when the query gets resolved quickly, citizens express their gratitude and elation immediately. This expression can act as an authentic validation or testimonial for the service. The two examples below are common on social media these days–the first one is about a traffic complaint to Mumbai Police, while the other one is a realtime grievance filed by a traveller on Indian Railways to the Railways Bengaluru Division. Law & Order Amongst governmental agencies, police departments are arguably one ments a Figure 1
    • 4. 18 YOJANA June 2020 of the most active users of social media channels. This is because their jobs hover around real-time, public facing situations, which are frequently subject to rumours, false alerts etc. They are required to display trust in their public dealings and communicate unequivocally. The Police frequently needs to make public announcements–something that social media is well-suited for. This Delhi Police advisory on Twitter (Figure 1) is a telling example how police uses social media to alert citizens about circulating rumours. Hiring & Recruitment Some government agencies are using social media hiring channels for attracting best-in-class talent for their job vacancies. “LinkedIn” is a popular online recruitment platform–here is an example of a vacancy posted by NISG (National Institute of Smart Government) for technical positions in UIDAI (Unique Identification Authority of India) which runs the Government of India’s Aadhaar program. LinkedIn offers two advantages–it is a publishing tool for job postings, and it also has over 500 million registered users across the world (including 62 million Indian users). They can readily view these vacancies and apply if interested. Foreign Relations Social media bridges the distance between nations on the internet. Many governments agencies are using social media channels effectively to engage with their foreign counterparts. Embassies and foreign consulates are active on Twitter & Facebook, engaging with each other or sharing important updates to their citizens. Below is an example of the Indian Government (through their official Twitter account) wishing the people of Paraguay on their Independence Day and how the Indian Government’s Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) has published all their official Twitter handles on the MEA website (https:// mea.gov.in/) Business & Industry Relations Government agencies partner with businesses, industry bodies and trade organisations on a regular basis for policy, consultations, networking etc. Businesses play a key role in driving social media’s impact by contributing significantly to the internet economy via advertising, paid services etc. Many monetisation models on the internet (wholly or partially) rely on enterprises, B2B (business to business) and large corporations with large advertising and marketing budgets, which contributes to the nation’s economy. The two examples shared on the left exemplify this–the first is a Facebook post from Ministry of Commerce & Industry showing the Minister addressing an industry gathering, while the second is an invitation on Twitter for an industry summit on Education by the Indian Consulate in Indonesia. Live Traffic Updates Real time traffic updates and advisories get regularly shared in the metropolitan cities via the local Traffic Police social media accounts. These updates are helpful to commuters in avoiding traffic jams or taking detours to save time. Often these live updates are picked up by local FM radio channels that do their civic bit, by sharing it on with live audiences that have tuned into the channel while on the roads. Here are two examples of Delhi Traffic Police sharing updates on Twitter for a road blockage, and traffic advisory for traffic re-routing owing to some festivities. Government Procurement The government (as an entity) is the largest producer and buyer of goods and services in the country. It’s buying (or procurement) is largely
    • 5. YOJANA June 2020 19 based on open tendering process, which gives everyone a chance to participate in an unbiased, nondiscriminatory way. Hence, tender notices have to be published publicly on the main outreach channels. Traditionally, tender notices were advertised in newspapers; now with the advent of e-tendering, these notices are increasingly getting posted on social media channels as well. The two examples above bear testimony to this trend–the first one is a tender notice from Ministry of Power inviting bids for electric cars, while the second one is from Ministry of Information & Broadcasting’s Chandigarh Bureau for digital printing. Crowdsourcing Ideas & Innovation The internet is fundamentally participatory in character–people openly share their knowledge, skills, and experiences in the belief that others can benefit from it. Sometimes this is free, or there may be some incentives for it. Crowdsourcing is a popular activity on the internet, where you get to tap into the collective “wisdom of the crowds”. On the left is an example on how the Indian Government’s community participation platform MyGov is leveraging crowdsourcing, by hosting a “Logo Design Competition” for an upcoming government heritage complex. Citizens are invited to contribute their logo entries for the contest, which has an accompanying cash prize to generate excitement and motivate participants. Citizen Service-Delivery Apps The government has launched various service delivery apps for its citizens. Social media is a key channel to drive awareness about these apps and get people to download them. Because these apps are mass targeted, the intent is to make them “go viral” and spread via “word-of-mouth” from person to person. Social media channels like Twitter, Facebook, WhatsApp are best-suited for this virality. The two examples here showcase this–DigiLocker is meant for digitised documents & certificates, while UMANG is like a gateway (or a directory) to multiple government services. While these apps have their individual social media handles, they are also promoted by the government departments. Transparency & Accountability Citizens want ready access to government departments and its functioning officers. Given the size and expanse of the official setup, it is often not easy to figure out who is the concerned officer-in-charge (in
    • 6. 20 YOJANA June 2020 whose jurisdiction the case falls) and their contact details. Social media can come to the rescue in some cases. Here is an example of how the police department in Dima Hasao, one of the districts in Assam has publicly shared telephone numbers of their top officers and their rank and file. Such measures reduce bureaucracy, while promoting transparency and accountability in the eyes of the citizens. References 1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ Technology_adoption_life_cycle 2. https://www.telegraph.co.uk/ technology/0/bill-gates-quotes-wordswisdom-microsoft-mogul/microsoftfounder-gates-addresses-session-worldeconomic-forum/ 3. https://www.linkedin.com/jobs/ view/1828855148/ 4. https://twitter.com/IndianDiplomacy/ status/1260817443234119680 5. https://mea.gov.in/mea-on-twitter.htm 6. https://twitter.com/DimahasaoPolice/ status/1176782269303779328 7. https://www.mygov.in/task/logo-designcompetition-national-maritime-heritagecomplex-lothal/ 8. https://twitter.com/dtptraffic/ status/956562337275691008 9. https://twitter.com/dtptraffic/ status/1255344026183761921 10. https://twitter.com/ROBChandigarh/ status/1199640537592033285 11. https://twitter.com/EESL_India/ status/1227097515108917253 12. https://twitter.com/IndianEmbJkt/ status/1158624752497336320 13. https://www.facebook.com/PIB. Ministryof.Commerce.and.Industry/ posts/2435788706502733 14. https://twitter.com/UmangOfficial_/ status/1230717490377838592 15. https://twitter.com/digilocker_ind/ status/1225288302372089856 16. https://twitter.com/DelhiPolice/ status/797497935734812672 17. https://twitter.com/MumbaiPolice/ status/1174324062455099400 18. https://twitter.com/PIB_India/ status/1262068277871702017 19. https://twitter.com/ndmaindia/ status/1262389983324844033 20. https://play.google.com/store/apps/ details?id=in.mygov.mobile&hl=en_IN 21. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Digital_ India


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