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To support the ‘Minimum Government, Maximum Governance’ vision at the third tier of Government i.e., Panchayats, by the means of technology, the Ministry of Panchayati Raj organized Manthan: Charting New Paths, an Industry consultation on e-Gram SWARAJ 2.0 here today. The inaugural session of the national level conference was led by Dr. Chandra Shekhar Kumar, Additional Secretary, Ministry of Panchayati Raj.

       Setting the agenda for the conference, Dr. Chandra Shekhar Kumar apprised the participants on the longevity of social, economic and environmental welfare at grassroot level by enhancing rural governance through adoption of Digital tools and Technology. He opined that the administrative capacity and effectiveness of regional and local governments must be enhanced, through the provision of technological tools and resources for playing a meaningful role in the course of development. This technology driven governance architecture must be based on a common strategic and programming framework that provides for targeting all interventions to well-defined economic, social, and environmental objectives. The reach, scope, and outcome of government actions must be enhanced through leverage of technology. In this endeavour Industry, researchers, practitioners, knowledge providers, civil society, and public authorities must work closer together to better exploit and share opportunities arising from scientific and technological progress.

       Shri Abhishek Singh, President & CEO, NeGD, delivered the Keynote address on the various initiatives undertaken by the Government of India under “Digital India” programme and how technology can be leveraged to enable and ensure last mile delivery. He highlighted that the Digital Interventions in different schemes being implemented by the Government of India are ensuring transparency, efficiency, and timely delivery of services to the citizens of the country. Shri Singh also mentioned how new age emerging technologies can be leveraged by Government Institutions for better implementation and monitoring.

  In his Welcome address, Shri Alok P. Nagar, Joint Secretary, Ministry of Panchayati Raj called for indispensable adoption of Next Generation Technology interventions
with a cross-sectoral and whole-of-government approach in the design, deployment and scale-up of the ICT applications and digital solutions at the Gram Panchayat level.

       The Industry Consultation, organised by the Ministry of Panchayati Raj, included participation of Industry leaders from Deloitte, Amazon Web Services, Cloudthat, Minfy, Knowlarity, CoRover, Paytm, and PhonePe, marking a new beginning towards fostering digital transformation of rural areas.

    

       This conference has ensured broadening of the vision and visibility of the State Panchayati Raj Departments on the various technology driven innovations underway in the Government landscape, further fuelling the growing appetite for technological solutions above and beyond the existing e-Gram SWARAJ solution in rural areas. This would, in turn, trigger the rural transformation to achieve the vision of Gram Swaraj laid down by Mahatma Gandhi.

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