West Bengal has been emphasising on introduction of new technology in the governance process. On the back of innovative steps in Governance & Development and e-Governance categories, West Bengal has been categorised as PERFORMER state. West Bengal won 11 SKOCH Ordersof- Merit and seven awards. Three awards each in Platinum and Gold categories, while one award went in Silver category.

Key Achievements

West Bengal bagged three SKOCH Ordersof- Merit in e-Governance and Governance & Development category each. In e-Governance category the state bagged two awards – one Gold and one Silver. The state also won one Gold award in Governance & Development category.

Archaic labour laws and regulations have discouraged investments in West Bengal in the past several decades. With an objective to attract investments and create jobs, the Government has taken multiple initiatives to ease the procedures and steps related to clearances, inspections, certifications etc. from its various Directorates. These industry friendly mini-labour reforms, brought about through process simplification and digitisation, have tried to change the mindset amongst Industry looking towards investing in West Bengal. In addition to the amendments brought about in the archaic Labour Laws, the complex and tedious processes involved in the delivery of various services like Grant of Licence under Factories Act, Licence under the Indian Boilers’ Act, Contract Labour (R&A) Act etc have been reengineered to suit the order of the day.

Under a new initiative named “Samajik Suraksha Yojana”, Labour Department has converged the existing Social Security Schemes for unorganised workers through massive GPR and brought in uniformity in type and quantum of benefits, eligibility criteria, procedure of application and their processing. The Department has also introduced inspection reforms under the Labour Commissionerate.

Sabooj Sathi Online programme introduced by Backward Classes Welfare Department has facilitated planning, supply, delivery and distribution of 40 lakh bicycles in 12,000 schools of West Bengal in an efficient and cost effective manner. It provided end-to-end solution for huge supply chain management, which involved movement of 7,500 truckloads of bicycle components from factory to 2,500 assembly points and 12,000 distribution points.

The government has taken the initiative to introduce e-Governance in various layers of the Departments and its wings to streamline the Human Resource Management System to ensure timely disbursement of salary to the employees under Grant-in-aid scheme. eHRMS for Grant-in-Aid Employees of Government of West Bengal developed by National Informatics Centre provides the necessary solution under the scheme.