Gujarat has occupied the top slot in SKOCH State of Governance 2019. The credit goes to its Chief Minister Vijay Rupani who has introduced a number of innovative and progressive policies to make the public delivery system accountable, transparent and effective. The state has made tremendous progress to be at #1 spot once again after a gap of six years, when Narendra Modi was its Chief Minister. He was also on the cover of INCLUSION.
| 2019 | 2018 | 2017 |
| 1 | 5 | 13 |
The state had lost momentum for a short duration when Anandiben took over as Chief Minister. Further change in leadership at the helm in the state with Vijay Rupani saw a revival with healthy growing economy, implementation of technology-based solutions, effective welfare delivery and a sharp focus on bringing in industries.
The year 2019 – Gujarat is the shining star among Indian states when it comes to governance and has displayed an all-round ability to chart new territories through its values of accountability, transparency and delivery of welfare services at the last mile.
| Sector | 2019 | 2018 | 2017 |
| Education | 1 | 2 | |
| Power | 1 | 1 | |
| Health | 1 | ||
| e-Governance | 1 | 9 | |
| Transport | 1 | 5 | |
| Tourism & Culture | 1 | ||
| Governance | 1 | 6 | |
| Infrastructure | 1 | ||
| Food & Civil Supplies | 2 | 1 | |
| District Administration | 2 | 3 | 6 |
| Agriculture | 2 | ||
| Water | 2 | ||
| Finance | 2 | 5 | |
| Municipal Governance | 3 | 3 | 5 |
| Skill Development | 4 | ||
| Women & Child Development | 4 | 2 | |
| Sanitation | 7 | ||
| Police & Safety | 7 | 1 |
Gujarat topped on the back of a splendid performance in Health, Education, Power, Transport and e-Governance segments. There is a remarkable jump in the ranking of Gujarat. In 2018 Gujarat was ranked at the fifth position.
Gujarat topped this year’s ranking with 104 projects from the state making entry to the final shortlist for evaluation. Out of these, 19 projects from Gujarat were found to be exceptionally impactful.
Gujarat gained the number one position in eight sectors – Health, Power, Education, e-Governance, Transport, Tourism & Culture, Governance and Infrastructure. This means in all these sectors the highest number of impactful entries came from Gujarat.
Chief Minister Rupani is known for his clean image, his focus on ideals of governance and an innate ability to turn around struggling sectors by finding innovative solutions. Rupani has been instrumental in Gujarat’s growth over the last three years and SKOCH’s in-depth assessment suggests that his groundwork has borne fruit by putting the state on a progressive path like no other. Needless to say that the bureaucracy in the state under the guidance of its Chief Minister has left no stone unturned to realise the vision of Chief Minister Rupani.
“I want to put forward some figures to showcase how we have been progressing economically. In 1995-96, the size of the budget was Rs 10,873 crore. Today, even the vote-on-account has reached around Rs 1.5 lakh crore. This means that both resources and schemes have increased. If revenue increases, only then we can spend on developmental and social works.
“The second indicator is that the per capita income. Two decades ago, the per capita income of Gujarat was Rs 13,665. Today, this income has increased to Rs 1,74,652. This shows that we are moving ahead,” he said recently.
More than 200 projects and schemes from Gujarat were carefully studied. Out of these 104 were shortlisted for final evaluation and assessment. A large number of these projects were found to be highly impactful and have the potential to be replicated in other parts of the country. These projects range from Health and Education to Power, Tourism & Culture.
Gujarat has introduced a technology-enabled community health system called TeCHO+ with an objective to further improve coverage and quality of health services. TeCHO+ is an interactive platform to provide health services to respective beneficiaries at their doorsteps with the two-way exchange of data from the community to health facility and vice versa.
Nearly 5.5 crore citizens were enrolled through TeCHO+ system till 10 January 2019. The system tracks the health services and health status of citizens throughout the state. TeCHO+ is a mobile & web-based application, which works as a job-aid for health workers and administrators for improving coverage and quality of health services related to reproductive and child health, non-communicable diseases, communicable diseases as well as mental health.
The application provides name-based tracking of the eligible persons using mobile phones. It also ensures convergence of ANM, ASHA and Aaganwadi workers and links them with the available health facilities.
Improving Service Delivery to Reduce Infant Mortality
Gujarat’s Commissionerate of Health and Family Welfare has taken a number of initiatives to improve child health services, with an objective to reduce the infant mortality rate. The interventions include facility-based new-born care, home-based new-born care, deployment of HR, capacity building and improved referral system. It has shown good results in the form of reduction of new-born and infant mortality rate in the last few years. The infant mortality rate has declined from 33 to 30 per 1,000 live births (SRS 2016) and under-5 mortality – from 39 to 33.
More than 50 per cent of health infrastructure in Gujarat is in the private sector. The government has introduced a scheme called Balsakha Yojana to enable quality healthcare to marginalised through a public-private partnership. Balsakha Yojana was started during Narendra Modi’s tenure as Chief Minister of the state and has been implemented in different stages.
Balsakha 1 and 2, started in 2009, focused on providing IPD and OPD treatment facility of private paediatricians to the poor. It was followed by Balsakha 3 in 2017, the landmark scheme, where sick new-born with birth weight less than 1.5 kg are provided care in NICU of private hospitals regardless of geographical location, caste or economic condition. The scheme was implemented with technical support from UNICEF.
Overall, Balsakha schemes and particularly Balsakha 3 has shown promising results. More than 190 hospitals are empanelled and more than 24,000 new-born babies have benefitted per year under Balsakha 3 scheme since its inception. Mortality rate has reduced, 5 per cent in comparison to 13 per cent in government SNCUs. 1,920 new-born additional lives have been saved.
This is a first of its kind PPP initiative in the health sector to improve newborn care services. Management of sick newborn is totally free and the entire cost is borne by the state government, said Jayanti S Ravi, Principal Secretary, H&FW.
Gujarat’s Roads and Buildings Department has launched the Second Gujarat State Highway Project with the support of the World Bank. The project is estimated to require an investment of nearly Rs 2,000 crore. It envisages three major components – civil works, institutional development and road safety enhancement. First of its kind Output and Performance-Based Road Contract (OPRC) at the network level has been awarded and is under implementation.
The work involves up-gradation of existing two-lane State Highway of 60 km length to the new four-lane divided facility. Mehsana-Himatnagar is state highway connecting National Highway-Delhi-Ahmedabad-Mumbai at the eastern end, besides facilitating local passenger traffic demand. It also connects goods and other commercial movements to ports of Gujarat, importantly the port of Kandla, which is one of the major ports in India.
The innovative contracting method has been adopted as “Modified Annuity” wherein real leveraging of private financing has happened. The project is developed on the concept of Green Highways. Twelve years of concession period and maintainability of good service levels are ensured through this project. It has set the standards of project preparation, PPP structuring, leveraging of Private Finance at the time when PPPs are failing and importantly the need of the hour is asking for Green implementation.
Gujarat Urja Vikas Nigam Ltd has introduced Suryashakti Kisan Yojana with an objective to help enhance farmers’ income. The scheme generates constant cash flow for farmers and in turn, helps in achieving Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s vision of doubling farmers’ income by 2022. The emphasise of the scheme is on promoting the use of renewable energy by way of distributed solar generation.
In the pilot project, Gujarat Urja Vikas Nigam Ltd has planned to commission 137 feeders in a phased manner. The first feeder was commissioned on 25 November 2018. 59 feeders have been commissioned so far benefiting 2,241 farmers with an aggregate installed capacity of Solar PV system to the tune of 52 MW.
New technology has been used to make the Centre more effective and responsive. The integrated centralised real-time dashboard has been set up with BI-Tool for data integration of various existing applications. There is also a platform for registering complaints, feedback and suggestions from different stakeholders including students, parents and teachers. A mechanism has been put in place for timely resolution. The initiative has increased accountability among all the field level staff and improves the quality of education.
District Panchayat Ahmedabad has launched an initiative called Pahel under which it provides healthy and clean sanitary pads to girls of all schools in the rural and sub-urban area of Ahmedabad district. An eco-friendly disposal system and distilleries for used pads are distributed as part of the project.
Menstrual hygiene (such as unavailability of sanitary pads and inadequate sanitation) is one of the major reasons for drop-out of girls from schools. This initiative of the District Panchayat administration seeks to address the basic needs of girls. When sanitary napkins are mixed with regular waste it is difficult to segregate them and dispose off. The exposure of these viral borne wastes to the environment, animals and the public at large causing diseases like Hepatitis B and C. It exposes waste pickers to diseases causing micro-organisms E Coli, Salmonella, Staphylococcus, HIV and pathogens that cause hepatitis and tetanus. Incinerating these napkins is the only way of getting rid of these problems.
As part of the initiative, one lady nodal teacher is appointed in every school to educate girls about menstrual hygiene and carry out the responsibility of safe and correct use of sanitary napkin vending machine and incinerator also. ASHA, Aaganwadi worker and lady teachers are also used to mobilise non-school going girls who dropped out of school due to menstrual hygiene issues.
Focus on curbing illegal mining, capacity building
TRINETRA
Drone-based surveillance system called TRINETRA has been introduced to check illegal mining. Commissioner of Geology and Mining (CGM) has engaged with specialist agency through an open tendering process for supply of drones and implementation of the scheme.
The drones come with the capacity of flying at sufficient height to evade damage. It is equipped with powerful cameras with zoom capability to capture evidence on the ground and an adequate flying time capacity supported by battery storage.
The project has helped the Government of Gujarat successfully intercept many instances of illegal mining in river-beds. Commissioner of Geology and Mining conducted 187 raids and imposed Rs 19.36 crore in penalty till 3 May 2019 helped by this surveillance system, according to Roopwant Singh, Commissioner, Geology and Mining Department, Gujarat. TRINETRA project has acted as a force multiplier for the Flying Squad wing of the CGM office.
Samarthya
Project Samarthya caters to 10,280 youth from marginalised communities of 1946 geographically excluded mining-affected villages offering them 54 residential and non-residential training programmes based on the potential market opportunities at no-cost basis. The training is provided in 13 sectors at 33 training centres set up in 20 mining-affected districts. The project aims to provide assured employment, life skills and improvement in quality of life of people. It has a robust MIS to track and review end-to-end progress.
Mobile Medical Van
Gujarat Mineral Development Corporation Limited (GMDC) has launched e-Clinic or Mobile Medical Van scheme with a view to improve the healthcare facilities of villages falling under its core and buffer zones. GMDC has purchased five well equipped mobile vans for providing the services. Daily reporting through attendance, live location tracking, geo-fencing in GPS system, monitoring by the project head is done for effective implementation of the scheme. The details of all patients with diagnostic details and prescribed medicines are maintained online. The online portal is a well-integrated telemedicine network where a patient can directly talk to a senior doctor for further advice, if any. Medicine is provided free of cost.
Department of Horticulture, Government of Gujarat, has launched livelihood enhancement initiative for the farming community through horticulture in Narmada district. The focus is on engaging a higher number of farmers to banana cultivation and related activities.
The initiative has resulted in the generation of more income from per unit area of land. It has helped in the creation of different products like banana sap water, banana stem fibre, banana-based organic fertiliser, banana-based handicraft and textile item production. This creates additional income from the same piece of land without any additional cost.
Banana pseudostem and other related products give employment to the people in the district, mostly tribals. It ensures employment throughout the year. Banana is a major horticulture crop of Narmada district, with a 9,000-hectare area of cultivation.
Online Auction for Logistics Contracts
TRINETRA
Gujarat State Civil Supplies Corporation Ltd (GSCSCL) has introduced Electronic Reverse Auction Management System for logistics and labour contracts. This is the first initiative in the country by any civil supplies corporation to have its own e-auction platform for awarding logistics contracts to transporter and labour.
GSCSCL has implemented reverse e-Auction to execute online auctions efficiently in secured and transparent manner. GSCSCL can conduct e-Auctions for procurement of commodities like pulses, edible oil, sugar, refined Iodised salt, which are purchased from open market, according to Manish Bhardwaj, Secretary, Agriculture Department, Gujarat.
Auction portal has replaced the e-Tendering system. The benefit of having a new system is that it directly impacts cost and service delivery time. Robust end-to-end auction system manages auction in a transparent manner.
Earlier the payment process such as EMD and application has to be submitted by bidder physically at the concerned office. With the implementation of new solution, the hassle of making payment has been eliminated and bidder can easily submit the payment online. Payment can be easily tracked for success and failure.
The project is designed based on the fundamental principle of good governance, transparency, reliability and convenience from the view point of end users and stakeholders. The new process has helped enhance efficiency and led to direct cost reduction. GSCSCL saved Rs 40 crore by doing reverse e-auction for transport, doorstep delivery and labour contract. E-auction eliminates all the disadvantages of manual tendering process. It enables to break geographical barriers and ensure wider participation of bidders.
Vadodara district administration has launched initiatives to ensure healthy and safe drinking water to the common people. The focus of the scheme is to provide drinking water from a surface water source as the quality of surface water is mostly better than the groundwater.
During the summer season, local sources like hand pumps, tube wells and open wells run dry necessitating water supply through tankers. With the implementation of the scheme water supply through tankers has now become history.
The project named Waghodia Augmentation Regional Water Supply Scheme has been implemented in three cycles. The first cycle lasts from three to six months and involves community mobilisation. The second stage lasting twelve months involves physical execution and completion of the project. The third cycle is also of 12 months for providing post-implementation support.
Modern Technology for Safety of Common People
Home Department of Gujarat Government has introduced Safe and Secure Gujarat initiative to ensure the safety and security of the common people of the state using modern technology. The project seeks to establish CCTV camera-based Surveillance & Integrated Traffic Management System covering Tier-I, Tier-II and Tier-III cities across the state. More than 7,000 CCTV cameras were set up in 41 cities including 34 district headquarters and seven tourist places in Phase-I.
The network of CCTV cameras has been connected to Command & Control Centers (CCC) at 34 district headquarters and Central CCC at State Police Headquarters at Gandhinagar, according to Narasimha Komar, Inspector General of Police, Gujarat.
Supported by video analytic tools, the system is being used for monitoring happenings at important entry-exit points, key junctions and strategic locations. It is being used for Traffic Management, Traffic Enforcement, Crime Prevention & Detection, Post-incident Investigation, Safety of Streets, Resource Planning & Deployment, Collection of Video Forensic Evidence and Disaster Management.
It is a major e-Governance initiative of Home Department, Government of Gujarat and first of its kind project in the country.
The Department has created a system which can accommodate over 20,000 CCTV Cameras with storage of 90-days. The new system has been integrated with VAHAN and SARTHI database of Ministry of Road Transport & Highways, Government of India, for generating e-Challan. The system is also integrated with the Payment Gateway and Cyber Treasury of the state government. Over 1,500 police officers with technical background have been deployed in the Command and Control Center after imparting necessary training.
The system has resulted in overall improvement in police efficiency, crime detection and prevention, quality of investigation and urban mobility.
Gujarat Green Revolution Company Limited (GGRC) has introduced a micro-irrigation scheme called “Per Drop More Crop.” This is a component of Pradhan Mantri Krishi Sinchai Yojana (PMKSY).
GGRC has developed a unique model for the implementation of the scheme and processing of beneficiary farmer’s applications and transfer of assets (micro-irrigation system) and disbursement of subsidy to farmers using the state-of-art information technology. The applications are processed centrally through a dedicated software which is web-based and user-friendly. Applicants are enabled to track the status of the application through “Farmer Portal”.
Gujarat is the number one state in the implementation of micro-irrigation technology. Nearly 17.81 lakh hectares area is cover
Tripura ranks #21 nationally in the SKOCH State of Governance Report 2023.
Goa ranks #28 in the SKOCH State of Governance Report 2023.
Uttarakhand ranks #23 nationally in the SKOCH State of Governance Report 2023.
Nagaland ranks #19 nationally in the SKOCH State of Governance Report 2023
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