According to the government, the scheme has been revamped with a new approach, with the objective to encourage constructive competition, innovation, replication and institutionalisation of best practices.
File image of Prime minister Narendra Modi. ANI
The PMO has approved a revamp of the annual Prime Minister’s Awards for Excellence in Public Administration this year. Civil servants will now be assessed for the awards for their performance in Poshan Abhiyaan, Khelo India, PM SVANidhi scheme, One District One Product Scheme and seamless end-to-end delivery of services without any human intervention.
The awards are given each year by the PM on the occasion of Civil Services Day, 21 April.
“The Scheme has been revamped with a new approach in 2021 with the objective to encourage constructive competition, innovation, replication, and institutionalisation of best practices. Under this approach the emphasis would be on good governance, qualitative achievement and last-mile connectivity, rather than only on achievement of quantitative targets,” said the latest details of the PM Awards programme reviewed by News18. The Prime Minister’s Office approved the scheme a fortnight ago and all states and union territories have been informed of the new criteria through a letter.
The four schemes picked for assessing the performances of officers in districts are priority areas for the Narendra Modi government presently. The first criterion will be promoting Jan Bhagidari (people’s participation) in the Poshan Abhiyaan that aims to improve nutritional outcomes for children, adolescents, pregnant women and lactating mothers. The best-performing districts would be measured through “nutritional quantifiable outcomes” like percentage decrease in underweight children and anaemia among children and adolescent girls, the scheme says.
Districts will similarly be assessed on whether they made the most of the Khelo India programme for the development of sports and improving the well-being of citizens and if the scheme percolated down to the grassroots level in promoting physical fitness, identifying budding sports talents and providing them all necessary support to excel on bigger platforms.
“The PM’s Awards Scheme seeks to recognise the achievements of the districts towards promoting citizens’ well-being, nurturing the culture of sports, efforts at bringing in excellence in sports and physical fitness, thereby improving the entire sports ecosystem,” the scheme says.
The third programme to be assessed in districts will be to increase the adoption of digital transactions by the beneficiary street vendors through a cashback plan under the PM Street Vendor’s AtmaNirbhar Nidhi (PM SVANidhi) scheme. It aims to bring the hitherto unbanked street vendors into the fold of formal banking channels, thereby assimilating them into the formal urban economy.
The fourth scheme to be assessed will be holistic development through the One District One Product plan announced by the PM in his Independence Day speech in 2019.
Another key matrix that will be assessed for the PM Awards is a ‘seamless end to end delivery of service without human intervention’ and through technology tools. “Since the services of various nature are delivered at the District level, under this award along with service delivery, the technology deployed, innovation brought about, the satisfaction of citizens, the seamlessness of the process, level of human intervention, etc would be assessed,” the new awards scheme details say.
Awards will also be given to officers for bringing various innovations in environment conservation, water conservation, energy, education, health, women and child-centric initiatives, sustainable farming, promoting livelihoods, boosting economy, improving governance, ease of doing business, faceless delivery of public services, promoting digital payments and disposal of public grievances.
A total of 18 awards will be given by Prime Minister Narendra Modi. “The new approach would be towards assessing performance in a scheme holistically and driven by good governance practices steered by technology,” the scheme details say.
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