Making learning policies fun

People’s interest in politics has been growing in recent times and Rakesh Dubbudu is inclined to making politics fun and informative for the youngsters of our country with his web series Decode. One may find it noteworthy that his organisation, Factly, happens to be one of the 87 portals who received funding from the programme Google News Initiative(GNI) by Youtube Innovation Funding.

“With Decode, we are attempting to convey political regulations to the youth in a format that will appeal to them. We have released its first season so far and certainly intend to release more. The series will cover many policy-related issues and is not based just on the upcoming elections,” explains Rakesh.

One might think of web series as story-driven with an actor-character format. However, Decode comprises an animated protagonist, who talks about stereotypical government-related issues, and a presenter, who shares relevant solutions with the viewers.

“We have been working around public information from quite some time now, and although we’ve been posting videos on YouTube, they were not really structured. Then YouTube announced GNI in December and we were chosen to be one of the 87 projects that were later funded by the programme. This funding has helped us simplify the web-series,” says Rakesh.

The series is currently available in Hindi and English but Factly, which is a data journalism and public information portal, intends to release it in Telugu as well.

“In the first season, we have covered the usual election-related issues, voting as a right, political parties, and issues related to funding,” said Rakesh. “Our viewership is picking up and I believe that the series will appeal to even more people in the long run,” he added.

Decode will continue even after the elections conclude. “After this, we plan to cover subjects related to the parliament, and then on finance. There are many regulations that need to be covered,” he says.