On January 16, 2021, the 70th SKOCH Summit (SKOCH Public Policy Forum) was held in New Delhi during which SKOCH Awards 2021 were presented to different ministries by SKOCH Group. These are detailed as below:
MoTA Received SKOCH Challenger Award for E-Governance & 3 Gold Awards for Its Initiatives
The SKOCH Challenger Award-Best Performance in e-Governance was presented to Ministry of Tribal Affairs (MoTA). The ministry got the SKOCH Challenger Award for the 2nd consecutive year. It was received by Union Minister Arjun Munda, (MoTA).
Three Gold Awards:
The Ministry also received 3 Gold Awards for its initiatives viz.
- Eco-Rehabilitation of tribal villages through Innovative design in water management using Ice-stupa.
- Ice Stupa is a form of glacier grafting technique that creates artificial glaciers, used for storing winter water in the form of conical shaped ice heaps. During summer, when water is scarce, the Ice Stupa melts to increase water supply for crops. It was invented by Sonam Wangchuk in Ladakh.
- Swasthya: Tribal Health and Nutritional Portal
- Performance Dashboard ‘Empowering Tribals Transforming India ‘
These were received by Dr Naval Jit Kapoor, Joint Secretary on behalf of the Ministry. Arjun Munda also released a booklet on key reforms and initiatives undertaken by Ministry.
–MoPR conferred with SKOCH Challenger Award for Transparency in Governance
The “SKOCH Challenger Award- Transparency in Governance” was conferred to Ministry of Panchayati Raj (MoPR) for recognizing its IT-led initiatives that resulted in performance improvement, better transparency and strengthening of the e-Governance in Panchayati Raj Institutions (PRIs).
- The award was received by Sunil Kumar, Secretary, MoPR.
–Southern Railway bags ‘SKOCH Silver Award’ for response to COVID-19
Southern Railway was presented the SKOCH Silver Award under the category of excellence in response to Covid-19.
- It’s Rail Dandora app also bagged the fourth place under the category of excellence of governance.
- RailMadad, the grievance redressal portal of Indian Railways, had won gold in the category of excellence of governance.
Other Awards:
—Karuna Gopal, President, Foundation for Futuristic Cities, has been conferred the Skoch Challenger Award for her work in the area of Urban Reforms and Urban Innovations.
–Telangana Government’s T Culture app, to issue identity cards to artistes across the State to access various welfare schemes was also presented withthis award.
- The app was launched by the Department of Language and Culture in collaboration with Telangana Information Technology Association’s (TITA) digital entity Digithon, is a first-of-its-kind initiative in the country.
–Pradeep S Mehta, Secretary General, CUTS International has been conferred the SKOCH Challenger Award.
–The prestigious SKOCH silver award has been awarded to Anantapur district for the Kisan Rail organised from the district to New Delhi for the benefit of horticulture farmers.
Recent Related News:
i.Ranjitsinh Disale, a teacher from Zilla Parishad Primary School, Paritewadi, Solapur district in Maharashtra, India won US $1 million annual Global Teacher Prize 2020.
ii.On 8th December 2020, “Invest India” won the 2020 UNCTAD Investment Promotion Award by the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD).
About SKOCH Challenger Award:
Instituted in 2003 by a SKOCH Group, a think tank dealing with socio economic issues, SKOCH Awards honours people, institutions, projects that go the extra mile to make India a better nation.
SKOCH Group Chairman– Sameer Kochar
