The Central Bureau of Communication, which is the nodal department under the union ministry of information and broadcasting for government advertising, is working on rates and preparing guidelines for government advertisements on websites and social media platforms, the Indian Express reported.

“These will be notified over the next few weeks,” I&B secretary Apurva Chandra told the paper.

This comes more than three months after I&B minister Anurag Thakur told the Lok Sabha that the government had chosen four agencies to work with social media influencers for content about government schemes and campaigns.

There has been a dip in government spending on traditional media over the last five years, from Rs 1,200 crore in 2017-18 to Rs 264.78 crore in 2021-22, according to the Indian Express.

The ad campaigns will be based on regional reach and type of audience. For example, for schemes about youngsters, YouTube channels and non-news websites that have 18- to 28-year-old youngsters as the primary consumers will be targeted, according to the report. “The idea is to ensure that the information about the schemes reach the person they are meant for,” Apurva Chandra told the paper. 

In June, YouTuber Ranveer Allahbadia, better known by his internet moniker BeerBiceps, began interviewing BJP ministers on his YouTube channel. Allahbadia later told Newslaundry that he had not bid for the March 7 tender, and received no payments from the government for the series.

Newslaundry had earlier reported that the CEO of a company he founded was part of an interaction that union minister Piyush Goyal had with “over 50 top-performing YouTubers on various issues like popularising handicrafts, benefits of millets and consumer awareness”.