Along with answering the questions of the public, P. Chidambaram will also discuss the budget and the state of the economy with a panel that includes Mahindra & Mahindra Chairman and Managing Director Anand Mahindra; JP Morgan's Senior Asia Economist and India Chief Economist Jahangir Aziz and Google Inc Senior Vice President Amit Singhal.
This is for the first time that any Union Cabinet Minister is using this medium to interact with the citizens and to respond to their questions about the Union Budget. “This is a powerful communications platform and is accessible across the world for Internet users,” says a press release, issued by the ministry of finance.
The chief minister of Gujarat, Narendra Modi had also interacted with the masses through Google’s Hangout. Not only Modi but leaders from around the world like the US President Barack Obama; Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard and Malaysian Prime Minister Najib, among others, had interacted with netizens on Google’s Hangout.