Awards in June 2013

June 2013 Awards

Three Indian projects will receive U.N. Public Service Awards this year.The awards are given for projects that fight poverty and promote sustainable development. The projects are Mass Contact Programme of Kerala, Swavalamban of District Administration of Dhanbad in Jharkhand and Graamin Haat programme of Department of Cottage and Rural Industries in Madhya Pradesh. The Kerala government’s Mass Contact Programme, initiated by the Chief Minister’s Office, was launched in 2011, with the main aim of combating red tape and bureaucracy in administration. It enables interaction between the people and the government by encouraging them to approach the government directly to get their concerns addressed without delay or corrupt practices. The Swavalamban initiative of Dhanbad district administration has improved disbursement of pensions in the district. Before the implementation of the initiative, the largely manual process of disbursement in the payment of pensions, particularly registration of new pensioners, was very cumbersome, tedious, involved lot of paper work, inefficient, non-transparent, and provided unreliable information. A pensioner had to wait days, weeks or months and sometimes had to pay bribes to get entitlements. The initiative has cut down the time from three months to a maximum of three days, by automating payment and creation of direct cash transfers into pensioners’ bank accounts. Payment through Business Correspondent in remote rural areas has dramatically improved the delivery of services. In addition, the database of all pensioners was digitized with help of a new software. Monitoring at district government level has been simplified making it only a mouse click away. The Madhya Pradesh government’s Graamin Haat has helped in women’s empowerment. Although women comprise almost 50 per cent of the population of Madhya Pradesh, their participation in the decision-making process at all levels is very limited. Women also have no control over resources and their contribution to the family and society remained largely unrecognised. The Haat Development Committee that operates weekly markets (haats) decided to create Women Self Help Groups (WSHGs) that would operate its own haats. The first such initiative took place in Digwar village 10 years ago. It was the first time that a haat was managed by rural women who were illiterate and inexperienced in managing such enterprise. Women now not only had an important place in the haat and thus in society but also control over resources. Internationally acclaimed Indian American Cardiac Surgeon and Healthcare Economist Dr Mukesh Hariawala on 28 June 2013, conferred the prestigious Indian Healthcare Visionary of the Decade award at a glittering ceremony of the 4th Annual Business Leadership Conclave at Hotel Leela in Mumbai. Also felicitated with other prestigious awards were industrialists Ratan Tata , Transformational Leader of the Decade and Mukesh Ambani who is the Millennium Business Leader of the Decade. International Data Group’s Computerworld Honours Program, Computerworld Honors Laureate selected UIDAI for 21st Century Achievement Award 2013 under the category ‘Economic Development’. It was given acknowledging the pivotal role played by UIDAI in leveraging technology to change people lives, streamline delivery of welfare services and provide opportunity to people to participate more fully in society. The Computerworld Honors Program, recognizes and honours visionary application of Information Technology promoting positive social, economic and social change. The initiative of Government of India was widely appreciated by the participants and media who were excited about the transformational impact of the project in socio economic life. The award was received by Ms. Keshni Anand Arora, IAS, DDG on behalf of UIDAI. Founded by International Data Group (IDG) in 1988, The Computerworld Honors Program is governed by the not-for-profit Computerworld Information Technology Awards Foundation. Computerworld Honors is the longest running global program to honor individuals and organizations that use information technology to promote positive social, economic and educational change. Computerworld is the leading source of technology news and information for IT influencers, providing peer perspective, IT leadership and business results. Former IPS officer Kiran Bedi was on 11 June honored with USD 10,000 'Nomura Award' in Singapore for her humanitarian works. The activist has decided to donate the reward money for the education of prisoners' children."I will be donating the entire award money for educating prisoners' children," Bedi, who was present at the award function in Singapore, said. Bedi was given the award constituted by Nomura Group of Japan for "improving the world for future generations". The group is one of the leading financial services group.