It is widely believed that India’s economy is on the move and will be the fastest growing among major economies in 2017. Public Private Partnerships (PPP) will be one of the major growth factors, which in the recent past have been mired by delay in project approvals and land purchases by the government. Ease-of-doing business has shown forward movement, Startups have been given a push and Micro, Small & Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) have got an additional support from the government by way of MUDRA and removing redundant regulations. It has also been increasingly realised that, India has to rely on domestic triggers to keep up the growth momentum. At the completion of first 25-years of Indian reforms, the country is now entering into the second phase of reforms, which more than anything else will herald the era of third-generation reforms to put India into the league of middle-income countries and add trillions of dollars to its economy. Positives are many: FDI reforms; bankruptcy code; increase in foreign portfolio investments; move towards GST; coal and power sector reforms; financial sector reforms; insurance reforms, which have made investors to look at India favorourably and so on.

The projects that were reviewed this year, which were nominated by various departments in the Central Government had a maximum sense of governance, transparency and improvements in services delivery. Centre has performed remarkably well in most of the categories in the impact and quality of engagement with the citizen, industry and other stakeholders. Centre won a total of 12 SKOCH Orders-of-Merit and 3 SKOCH Platinum and 3 Gold Awards. Two Awards were won in Transport, 1 in Governance and 3 in e-Governance category.

Key Achievements

Bhuvan Geo-Platform is of ISRO implemented by National Remote Sensing Centre (NRSC) to showcase distinctiveness of Indian imaging capabilities in multi sensor, multi-platform and multi temporal geospatial domain. It covers entire India and also extends certain services for the international community especially disaster support. Bhuvan has nearly 1 million unique visitors and 79,000 registered users. The system caters to requirements as an outcome of effective use of space technology in various ministries and State governments. Over 170 projects have benefited because of converged planning, development and monitoring.

Child Adoption Resource Information and Guidance System (CARINGS), an e-Governance initiative on adoption was launched in February 2011. It provides for a smooth and transparent child adoption process and increases the accountability of implementing agencies. Developed by Central Adoption Resource Authority (CARA), the system has enabled adoption of 3,011 children in-country and 666 inter-country and is maintaining a database of 10,285 prospective adoptive parents in the country.

In one of its kind of project where three levels of Government are coming together for the implementation of the project by pooling of their land and resources, the Indian Railway Stations Development Corporation Limited (IRSDC) is collaborating with Gujarat State Road Transport Corporation (GSRTC), Surat Municipal Corporation (SMC) and Government of Gujarat to develop country’s first Multi Modal Transportation Hub (MMTH) at a cost of `5,000 core. IRSDC has been entrusted with the responsibility to redevelop 13 railway stations across the country in a PPP mode.

Central Electricity Regulatory Commission’s (CERC) e-Filing Service under Court Case Automation Management System (CCMAS) was launched with the objective to reduce paper, increase transparency, facilitate quick and easy access of the relevant documents to the Commission and conduct hearings with the soft copies of petitions, replies, rejoinders in order to reduce time and cost. The benefits have accrued to its stakeholders including, Central Transmission Utility, Interstate Trading Licenses, Central Electricity Authority, State Load Dispatch Centre and so on. The disposal rate has increased by over 500 per cent.

The Ministry of Women & Child Development has launched ‘Mahila e-Haat’, a unique direct online marketing platform to support women entrepreneurs and Self Help Groups (SHGs). More than 1,200 products are on displays on the portal and seller-buyer meetings have been organised at Nagaland, Indore, Kochi, Chandigarh and Delhi to engage them.

Three projects—INAMPro, ePace and INFRACON—by National Highways Infrastructure Development Corporation Limited (NHIDCL) under Ministry of Road Transport & Highways fared quite well on SKOCH Awards. INAMPro is a platform and marketplace for infrastructure and material providers to conduct business in a fair, transparent and switft manner. INFRACON is a web-based national portal for consultants and consultancy firms working for the infrastructure sector in the field of roads and highways wherein public agencies receive technical proposals through INFRACON. More than 3,000 consultants and over 500 consultancy firms have registered so far and nearly 250 projects have been bidded out through this portal. ePace (Projects Appraisal and Continuing Enhancements) is an online integrated Management Information System (MIS) portal designed to monitor and improve the progress of development works.

Bureau of Indian standards (BIS) has started a Mobile Complaints Portal to strengthen BIS’s Grievance Redressal System. It has on the one hand increased transparency and speed of settlement of grievance and facilitated deeper penetration and increased accessibility to the consumers. Another portal to strengthen and empower citizens is—RTI Online Portal—by Department of Personnel and Training. As on date, over 560 public authorities are aligned with the portal. It is providing 24×7 access for filing RTI application and allows online payment of RTI fee.

All India Institute of Medical Sciences’ (AIIMS) Design & Delivery of e-Education in Health & Medical Sciences for Virtual Teaching is an e-education initiative for virtual teaching to the students of the identified medical colleges and hospitals of the North Eastern Region (NER).

Central Drugs Standard Control Organisation’s project on Implementation of e-Governance through SUGAM Portal is a unique attempt to ensure safety, efficacy and availability of quality drugs across the country. The portal also provides information on new drugs, permitted and banned drugs. This has led to collection of information wherein centralised monitoring has become possible for the first time in the country.