21-Dec-2017: Darpan Launched For Financial Inclusion Of Rural Population
The Minister of Communications launched DARPAN – “Digital Advancement of Rural Post Office for A New India” Project to improve the quality of service, add value to services and achieve “financial inclusion” of un-banked rural population. The goal of the IT modernization project with an outlay of Rs. 1400 Crore is to provide a low power technology solution to each Branch Postmaster (BPM) which will enable each of approximately 1.29 Lakhs Branch Post Offices (BOs) to improve the level of services being offered to rural customers across all the states. On date, 43,171 Branch Post Offices have migrated under the “DARPAN” project with the aim of financial inclusion to rural population and it is targeted to complete the project by March, 2018.
The Project shall increase the rural reach of the Department of Posts and enable BOs to increase traffic of all financial remittances, savings accounts, Rural Postal Life Insurance, and Cash Certificates; improve mail operations processes by allowing for automated booking and delivery of accountable article; increase revenue using retail post business; provide third party applications; and make disbursements for social security schemes such as MGNREGS.
As part of IT modernization project, the Department of Posts (DoP) has carried out business process reengineering across various functional areas and has created To-Be processes that will enable it to achieve these objectives. As an achievement, Department of Posts has established 991 ATMs across the country, which are interoperable with other banks and the common people has directly benefited with the wide network of Department of Posts especially in rural areas. Till now, 1,12,85,217 transactions have been carried out on the DOP’s ATMs out of which 70,24,214 transactions have been done by the non-DOP customers. Department of Posts is the only Government player in this space.
For more than 150 years, the Department of Posts (DoP) has been the backbone of the country’s communication and has played a crucial role in the country’s socio-economic development. It touches the lives of Indian citizens in many ways: delivering mails, accepting deposits under Small Savings Schemes, providing life insurance cover under Postal Life Insurance (PLI) and Rural Postal Life Insurance (RPLI) and providing retail services like bill collection, sale of forms, etc. The Department of Posts also acts as an agent for Government of India in discharging other services for citizens such as Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS) wage disbursement and old age pension payments. With 1.5 lakh Post Offices (approximately), the Department of Posts has the most widely distributed postal network in the world.
Trends such as urbanization, increased demand for financial services, increased funding by the government for the weaker sections and the rural sector, have opened up new opportunities for the Department of Posts, which in turn has necessitated development of new processes and supporting technology. The Department of Posts is also faced with twin challenges of increasing competition and continuing advances in communication technology, especially in mobile telephony and the Internet. In order to provide the best-in-class customer service, deliver new services and improve operational efficiencies, the Department of Posts has undertaken an end to end IT modernization project to equip itself with requisite modern tools and technologies. The IT modernization project intends to achieve the following:
- Wider reach to the Indian populace through more customer interaction channels
- Better customer service
- Growth through new lines of business
- IT enablement of business processes and support functions
22-Sep-2017: Government launches Pt. Deen Dayal Upadhayay Vigyan Gram Sankul Pariyojana.
Department of Science and Technology is implementing several initiatives for upliftment and economic development of rural areas in the country. A number of appropriate technologies have been developed, demonstrated and deployed at several locations in the country.
The Minister of Science & Technology, Earth Sciences and Environment, Forest & Climate Change, Dr. Harshvardhan launched “Pt Deen Dayal Upadhayay Vigyan Gram Sankul Pariyojana” which will experiment and endeavour to formulate and implement appropriate S&T Interventions for Sustainable Development through cluster approach in Uttarakhand.
This project has been inspired by teachings and ideals of Pt. Deen Dayal Upadhayay whose birth centenary is being celebrated this year.
DST has conceived to adopt a few clusters of villages in Uttarakhand and transform them to become self-sustainable in a time bound manner through the tools of Science and Technology (S&T). The key deliverable in this approach is to utilise local resources and locally available skill sets and convert them in a manner using science and technology, that substantial value addition takes place in their local produce and services which can sustain the rural population locally. Further, the local communities are not compelled to migrate from their native places in search of jobs and livelihoods. Once this concept is validated in the few selected clusters, it can be replicated across large number of village clusters in the country.
Four clusters at Gaindikhata, Bazeera, Bhigun (in Garhwal) and Kausani (in Kumaon) have been selected for the intervention through a series of dialogues held among officials of DST and Uttarakhand State Council of Science and Technology (UCOST); Gramodaya Network, Surabhi Foundation and Uttarakhand Utthan Parishad; and other experts. Intensive interaction with local population and field visits were carried out to identify the challenges and opportunities that exist in the clusters.
About a lakh of people would benefit directly or indirectly through this project in four identified clusters of 60 villages in Uttarakhand for pilot phase which are located at different altitudes (up to 3000 meters). As the living conditions and resources available at different altitude is relatively different, the adopted strategy would help in creating models that are appropriate for different altitudes and could then be replicated in other hill states as well.
Areas of interventions in these selected clusters would be processing and value addition of milk, honey, mushroom, herbal tea, forest produce, horticulture and local crops, medicinal & aromatic plants and traditional craft and handloom of Uttarakhand. Post-harvest processing of Kiwi, Strawberry, Cherry, Tulsi, Adrak, Badi Elaichi through solar drying technology, extraction of apricot oil using cold press technology. Stringent product and process control interventions for energy and water conservation would also be ensured through this project.
Novel strategies for sustainable development in this ecologically fragile state are important. Practice of agriculture, Agro-based cottage industries and animal husbandry in an eco-friendly manner will be emphasized during the implementation of the project.
Sustainable employment and livelihood options within the clusters such as eco-tourism, naturopathy and yoga, are also planned to be promoted.
These clusters would act as model production cum training and demonstration centres. There is a possibility of replicating this pilot phase initiative in other hill states of the country once it is established and stabilized. Various scientific institutions would participate collectively in this endeavour to accomplish the dream of Pandit Deen Dayal Upadhyay towards ‘Swavlamban’.
Department of Science and Technology (DST) has committed Rs 6.3 crore support for a period of three years for this project.
2-Jun-2017: Driver’s Training Institute and Secondary School at village Dhaula under SMARTGRAM Initiative
The President of India, Shri Pranab Mukherjee laid the foundation stone of a Driver’s Training Institute and a Secondary School under the SMARTGRAM Initiative at village Dhaula, Gurugram (Haryana). Three new Pradhan Mantri Kaushal Kendras (PMKKs) at Mahendragarh, Ambala and Palwal were also inaugurated.
Our villages not only have the capacity to develop but are also eager for development. If we keep moving ahead in this manner, the day is not far when our youth would not need to leave villages for cities in search of better avenues. It would also be possible to complete education of daughters in nearby villages. Good and affordable health services would be available for all and the youth would get training and employment in the vicinity of villages itself.
The President said that he believes that our country will develop only when our villages develop. Even today, 68 percent of our population lives in villages. If we want that our villages should prosper, we would have to improve the structure of our economy. When the SMARTGRAM Initiative was started on 2nd July 2016, the work which has been done to make President’s Estate a Smart Township can be replicated in villages as well. With the help of Haryana Government, Rashtrapati Bhavan selected five villages and many initiatives were taken for their development. Keeping in view the success achieved in the five villages, the program has now been extended to 100 villages. Success in SMARTGRAM initiative is possible only when the Government, private sector, academic institutions, NGOs and people in the villages come together for the development of villages.
Chief Minister of Haryana, Shri Manohar Lal announced that 1000 villages would now be made SMARTGRAMS. MoUs were exchanged between Gram Panchayat Dhaula and NSDC & ONGC. Commitment letters were also exchanged between Rashtrapati Bhavan and KVIC, Konark Energy Solutions & IFFCO.