NEW DELHI, Aug. 20 -- Members of the Union Council of Ministers received an analysis of their performance on four major social media platforms during Wednesday's cabinet meeting chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi and were also given instructions to expand their footprint across networks and scale up outreach, said people aware of the matter. To bolster the government's outreach on the ground, the PM is also learnt to have told the ministers to visit public schools and universities for "freewheeling chats" with students. Union ministers Pralhad Joshi and Mansukh Mandaviya will coordinate the outreach which is aimed at Gen Z and Gen Alpha, said people quoted above The analysis evaluated their posts and interactions on Facebook, LinkedIn, X and Instagram between May and August 15, said one person. Wednesday's instruction comes amid efforts by the Centre to counter the anger and criticism it faced on social media during and after recent protests over paper leaks led by the Cockroach Janata Party (CJP). The PM has been vocal about using social media platforms to disseminate government plans and programmes, to forge a direct link between the electorate and elected representatives and to shape the narrative. In recent meetings with the Bharatiya Janata Party-led National Democratic Alliance lawmakers, he had reiterated the need to improve social media outreach. According to a person privy to the details, the ministers had been informed in July that their social media engagement would be assessed. "This was like a SWOT analysis of their presence on four platforms, and how they compared to some popular leaders and public figures.no rankings were publicly disclosed," said the person quoted above. The person said the engagement was assessed based on daily posts and the traction they received. "The ministers were asked to improve and increase their social media engagement through newer platforms and more meaningful interactions," said the person quoted above. The Prime Minister, who has among the highest followers on platforms such as X, recently became more active on Instagram, sharing reels with Gen Z and Gen Alpha users....