Ministry of Tribal Affairs bags Award of Appreciation in the 18th CSI SIG eGovernance Awards 2020

New Delhi: The Ministry of Tribal Affairs bags the prestigious Award of Appreciation in the Project Category-Central Government Entity – in the 18th CSI SIG eGov Awards 2020 for their ‘Performance Dashboard Empowering Tribals Transforming India through various ICT initiatives.

The award was received by the joint secretary of the Ministry of Tribal Affairs, Dr. Navaljit Kapoor from the honorable Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh Shri Yogi Adityanath Ji in Lucknow today.

Shri Arjun Munda, Honourable Union Minister for Tribal Affairs stated that the ministry has been taking several steps to harness the intended gains of digital technology. “The Ministry of Tribal Affairs aims to nurture, develop and promote existing and budding talent among the tribal community through the help of Information and digital technology. The award is the recognition for the efforts taken by the entire ministry in this direction,” Shri Munda said.

The honorable minister explained the ministry has also been taking steps to ensure that the benefits of digitization reach the most remote corners of the country and that the lives of the tribal community are transformed through these initiatives.

Shri Yogi Adityanath Ji, Honorable Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh while handing over the awards stated that the central government has realized the importance of digital technology and has been coming out with several programs all based on technology. “The importance of all the measures was realized during the challenging times of the COVID lockdown when the relief measures announced by the government could easily be provided to the marginalized sections with the help of technology,” He said.

Giving the example of Uttar Pradesh, the honorable Chief Minister explained that with the help of technology their government was able to eliminate the loopholes in the public distribution system and ensure rations to lakhs of poor people in the state. “The government was able to save around Rs 2500 crore annually and also ensure that 80,000 ration shops were providing ration to the deserving poor people,” he said.

Shri R Subrahmanyam, Secretary, Ministry of Tribal Affairs stated that the award is the endorsement of the work done by the ministry in the area of information technology and indeed a big honor.

“The Ministry also received the prestigious SKOCH awards in the month of January. This is the second award received by the ministry. These awards confirm the efforts put by the entire ministry in achieving a common goal,” he said.

The Computer Society of India (CSI) has instituted a series of awards for recognizing the contributions made in the field of e-Governance in the country. These awards have been conducted by CSI-SIGegov. The awards are given for recognizing the efforts made in the e-Governance area at the State, Department, District and Project level.

The prestigious awards are contested through a laborious and strict selection process. The entire nomination process is online. Prospective nominees have to first register their particulars on the Awards web site. There is active participation for these awards from State and Central Government establishments, Departments, District authorities, and many Undertakings, research establishments. Participation by many of these Central and State level organizations have made these Awards an awaited event.

In round one of the selection process online applications were invited from across the board. In the second round, the departments or nominees were shortlisted on the basis of various parameters like applicability and best practices. The shortlisted nominees were then asked to give a detailed almost three-hour presentation to the selection committee. Then finally the best in the category were chosen for the awards.

In the month of January 2021, The Ministry of Tribal Affairs (MoTA) received the prestigious SKOCH Challenger Award for its “Best Performance in eGovernance” as the Ministry has topped in implementation of policy initiatives through government programs.

The Ministry of Tribal Affairs has been at the forefront of eGovernance practices. The Performance Dashboard is an interactive and dynamic online platform that showcases updated & real-time details of 11 schemes/initiatives of the Ministry for achieving these SDGs. The Dashboard captures the performance of 5 Scholarship Schemes of Ministry wherein every year about 30 lakh underprivileged ST beneficiaries reap the benefit to the tune of Rs 2500 crores.

Also, the Direct Benefit Transfer (DBT) Portal of the Ministry of Tribal Affairs was also recognized as a best practice by KPMG in e-governance which has brought about greater transparency, accountability, and radical improvement in service delivery to Scheduled Tribe students. Dynamic Dashboard captures details of tribal students from one State to different states and to different countries.