Must give importance to mobile governance: Modi

The country must think about 'mobiles first' and give importance to mobile governance to successfully implement e-governance, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said Friday.

In a first of its kind, the prime minister addressed the 18th National Conference on e-Governance through Twitter.

"I urge you to explore ways to provide as many services as possible through mobiles. Let us bring the world into our mobile phones!" Modi said in a tweet.

"While we look at e-Governance, let us think about 'mobile first' and thus give importance to m-Governance (mobile governance)," he added in another tweet.

Modi said that the conference brings together several delegates from central and state governments, armed forces, academia, industry and private sector while this year's themes revolves around digital governance, skill development and employability.

"Centre is committed to realising dream of a Digital India, with a vision to make India a digitally empowered society & knowledge economy," he said.

The prime minister said that he wanted to attend the conference personally but could not do so, therefore he took to Twitter.

"I wanted to personally attend the conference but was unable to do so. However, there was no way I could miss interacting with you," he tweeted.

"I thought - despite not attending, how can I connect with you. That is when I decided to use technology & talk to you via this medium," added Modi in another tweet.

The prime minister further added the "youthful energy" of the nation can be given impetus only though skill development, and technology.

"The youthful energy that our nation possesses is our prized asset. Giving an impetus to skill development through technology is essential. Scale and speed at which we have to take India's development journey requires maximum and smart utilisation of latest technology," he said.