In July 2025, ‘Meri Panchayat’ mobile application (app), a transformative digital governance initiative led by the Ministry of Panchayati Raj (MoPR) and the National Informatics Centre (NIC) under the under Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology(MeitY), has been awarded the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS) Prizes 2025 Champion Award under the Action Line Category: Cultural Diversity and Identity, Linguistic Diversity and Local Content.
- Sunita Jain, Senior Director, NIC/NIC-MoPR, received the award on behalf of the Government of India (GoI) during the WSIS+20 High-level Event 2025 also known as WSIS Forum 2025, held from July 07 to July 11, 2025 at Palexpo in Geneva, Switzerland.
- The event was jointly organized by the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) and the Swiss Confederation.
- It was held in collaboration with United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO), United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), and United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD), under the coordination of ITU.
Key Points:
i.Union Minister Rajiv Ranjan Singh alias Lalan Singh, MoPR formally received the WSIS Champion Certificate, during a ceremonial event held in New Delhi, Delhi.
ii.The event was also attended by Union Minister of State (MoS) Prof. S.P. Singh Baghel, MoPR; Vivek Bharadwaj, Secretary of MoPR and other senior officers of the Ministry.
About Meri Panchayat App:
i.The app, launched in 2023, empowers more than 25 lakh elected representatives and nearly 950 million rural residents across India’s 2.65 lakh Gram Panchayats (GPs).
ii.It enables the customers to get real-time access to panchayat budgets, receipts, payments, and development plans, along with details of elected representatives, public infrastructure, and civic services.
iii.It also provides access to Gram Panchayat Development Plans (GPDPs), project tracking, weather forecasts at GP level, social audit tools, fund utilization data, and grievance redressal with geo-tagged and geo-fenced features.
iv.The app ensures inclusivity through its multilingual interface by supporting over 12 Indian languages.
v.Through this app, citizens can propose new projects, review and rate implemented works, and access Gram Sabha agendas and decisions, thereby bolstering participatory democracy and civic engagement.
About International Telecommunication Union (ITU):
Secretary-General- Doreen Bogdan Martin
Headquarters- Geneva, Switzerland
Member Nations- 194 (including India)
Established- 1865
