India Today Television, Twitter, unite to launch Town Halls

The third episode in the series featuring Sri Sri Ravi Shankar was aired this weekend.

India Today Television has announced an exclusive partnership with Twitter to conduct Town Halls on the social media platform. The Twitter Town Halls aim to bridge the gap between newsmakers, opinion makers, eminent personalities and the company's followers on Twitter.

Through the Twitter Town Halls, the followers can tweet their questions and the guest will answer the queries. It will be aired on India Today Television. The partnership also includes the India Today Group's Hindi news channel Aaj Tak.

The first two episodes featuring Shah Rukh Khan and Kamal Hassan, have already been aired; the third episode in the series featuring Sri Sri Ravi Shankar was aired last weekend.

Speaking on the partnership, Kalli Purie, group editorial director, broadcast and new media, India Today Group, says, "Our sole objective through social media is to engage our followers and viewers in a dialogue on issues of national and global importance. Twitter Town Hall is a great format to ideate, debate and celebrate the spirit of freedom of expression. We trust that our social media followers are equally well-informed to put forth the right questions. We will roll out many such templates to empower our end-users."

Rishi Jaitly, vice-president, media for Asia-Pacific, the Middle-East, and North Africa, Twitter, adds, "Twitter Town Halls have been used by global business and political leaders to connect with their followers and audiences at large for some time now. Twitter is the only platform in the world that is public, conversational, and real-time. The beauty of the platform is that it allows users to engage with influential personalities from different walks of life, and gives them a voice. Twitter Town Hall will give users a chance to talk to and engage with influential icons and leaders from different walks of life for the first time."

The India Today Group, in a press note, claims to have over 6.26 million Twitter followers across its news handles.