Assam, Meghalaya, Manipur, Mizoram and Nagaland awarded for innovation in public systems

Centre for Innovations in Public Systems (CIPS) hosts its 1st Award Ceremony for recognising innovative practices in Shillong; Meghalaya awarded for innovation in health sector along with other States

Shillong : With an aim to encourage innovators from small states and inclusive innovations in public systems across the Northeast Indian States, Union Territories and Hill States, in the field of Education, Health, Information Technology and Rural Development, an award ceremony and panel discussion was held today in Shillong. Awards were given to states who stood out in terms of innovative practices in the mentioned sectors. This Award Ceremony was organized for the 1st time by the Centre for Innovations in Public Systems (CIPS) in collaboration with the Government Innovation Lab (GIL), Government of Meghalaya. The award ceremony was organized by CIPS, in collaboration with the Government Innovation Lab (GIL), Government of Meghalaya, with Administrative staff College of India (ASCI) as knowledge partners.

Addressing the audience, the Chief Guest of the ceremony, Chief Minister Conrad K Sangma congratulated CIPS and ASCI for organizing the innovation awards ceremony in the State. He said that this is a recognition of all the innovations that have been taking place not only in the State, but in States across the country. He mentioned that the best way to achieve the state goals is through collaborative efforts and stated that in the last 5 years, although he contributed in laying down the vision for the State, the capable and collaborative efforts of the administrative staff and functionaries were responsible for a plethora of innovations brought about in various sectors through a decentralized approach, and added that this can be an example for other practitioners present at the award ceremony to follow.

He added that innovation in all forms is always great, but any innovation is only good as long as it is able to help the people achieve their goals. One has to know the actual problem for innovation to work effectively, often those that are not easily identifiable at first sight. The ability to diagnose the problem and then adapt it to the state scenario is crucial. For instance, when addressing high maternal and infant mortality in the State, he said it was important to economically engage our mothers and women through SHGs and create an enabling environment for women in decision making realms at the grassroots. In line with this, currently Meghalaya is at 95 percent households covered under SHGs. He also informed that the State’s EAP funding demand has increased to 12500 cr from 2500 cr , in just 5 years. Meghalaya has come up to the level of larger states in terms of EAP funding requirement due to the fact that there is a strong manpower that is able to prepare Detailed Project Reports and adhere to the requirements of EAPs in a very short period of time. He stressed on the importance of working together as a team and the need to streamline and simplify rules and processes.

The special address was given by the Guest of Honour in the Award Ceremony, Dr. V.K Paul, Member, NITI Ayog, Government of India. He informed that the official mandate of NITI Ayog includes two elements- 1) promoting cooperative federalism and 2) competitive federalism. He stated that this award ceremony is more focused on the competitive federalism aspect. He appreciated the State’s initiatives in promoting innovation in the public systems. He added that the country is moving towards strengthening health systems across the country through various National Programmes to reach the last mile of the population. He requested the policy practitioners and administrators to create a paradigm that would enable running hospitals in the public sector using the best systems of administration. For CIPS in particular, he highlighted focused innovation through the lens of SDGs. He also spoke about the need to prioritize the awards and innovations in the education sector, to build a strong human capital.

VK Paul went on to appreciate Meghalaya’s Village Health Councils (VHCs) and said that it has the ability to transform health in a significant manner. He expressed surprise at the implementation and impact of CMSMS and the impact seen in terms of 50 percent decline in maternal and child deaths in the State from 2020-23. He further went on to appreciate the Meghalaya Early Childhood (ECD) Mission. He said that the government of Meghalaya has given the right priority to the right innovations through various interventions. He also spoke about the importance of interventions in prevention pathways in the domains of mental health, oral health and elderly health, among others. He urged everyone present at the award ceremony to pay special attention to these paradigms. He congratulated the State on allotting above 8 percent of its budget expenditure to healthcare and urged other states to learn from the Meghalaya Model of addressing healthcare challenges.

Development Commissioner & Principal Secretary Health & Family Welfare Department, Government of Meghalaya, Sampath Kumar, IAS spoke about Meghalaya’s State Capability Enhancement Approach to drive policy and innovation in solving complex development problems. He described the idea of building state capability as a homegrown approach of the Government of Meghalaya and said the State has an immense capacity to bring transformative development. He added that the State has been mobilizing the existing government workforce at cutting edge levels to build motivation among functionaries to address human development challenges, especially in terms of health. He spoke at length about the 5 pillar State Capability Enhancement framework namely - 1) building local leadership through problem solving, 2) Effective Use of Data and Research, 3) Addressing systemic challenges, 4) Building political supportability, and 5) Bridging citizen state relationship. He emphasized on the importance of collaborative efforts that led to 50 per cent reduction in maternal deaths in the State from 2020-2023. He said that being a landlocked state, Meghalaya has a huge human resource and the state is working towards unleashing the capability of children and youth, by designing the Early Childhood Development mission to build cognitive capital. He also informed that the state is unleashing the potential of a massive network of Self-Help Groups (SHG) women groups, where currently more than 90 percent of rural households are covered under SHG network. He spoke about the State’s reservation policy for women in Village Employment Committees (VECs) for the post of Chairman and Secretaries. He also delved deeper into the 3-actor model of Meghalaya’s State Capability Enhancement Framework, where Authorisers, Champions and Facilitators are playing a crucial role in building the capability of the State to tackle crucial human development challenges.

The list of awardees along with the respective innovations are as follows:

1. Sampath Kumar, IAS: Positive Public Health Management Meghalaya
2. Dr Phunchok Norboo, Mission Director, ABDM, Ladakh: Integration of Ayushman Bharat Digital Mission with e-Hospital
3. Ram Kumar S, IAS: Meghalaya Drone Delivery Network
4. A. Arun Prince Milton, Scientist, ICAR, Meghalaya: Rapid and cost-effective visual Diagnostic Kit for African Swine Fever Virus
5. Shantanu Gotmare, IAS: Kritagyata- Online Pension Sanction and Payment Tracking System
6. Mukesh Repaswal, IAS, Information technology Director, Shimla, Himachal Pradesh: Mukhya Mantri Seva Sankalp 1100
7. Krishna Kumar, IAS, Deputy Commissioner, Jiribam, Manipur: Manipur E-district Portal
8. Issac Zothanpuia, Project Manager, Mizoram State e-governance Society, Mizoram: RTI Online to promote accountability and for ease-of filling requests
9. Pallav Gopal Jha, IAS, Managing Director, GMDW&, Assam: Web-based water supply connections, Registration & Payment System
10. Shyambir, IAS, Deputy Commissioner, Ganderbal, J&K: MASHAAL-E-GAASH- A people-driven initiative to promote literacy
11. Dev Raj Dhiman, Principal, Himachal Pradesh: Inquiry Based learning for holistic development
12. Varnali Deka, IAS, DC, Nalbari, Assam: Poshan Club: Nurturing children for welfare schemes
13. Purva Garg, IAS, sECRETARY education, Samagra Shiksha: ECCE Early Childhood Care and Education as per new education policy 2020.
14. Varnali Deka, IAS, DC, Nalbari, Assam: Mushrooms as a tasty nutraceutical supplement
15. Shiv Kumar Upadhyaya & Deepak Shah: Village as Harbingers of change toward optimal utilization of resources
16. Prasada Rao Vaddarapu, IFS: Bamboo brooms with handles as alternatives to plastics
17. Ajit Kumar Ranjan, IAS, DC, Wokha Nagaland: Entrepreneurs Task Force, one stop model for rural entrepreneurs
18. Chete Lohe, CEO, Kiwi Production company, Phek, Nagaland: Promotion & Marketing of Organic Kiwi Fruit.

The Award ceremony also included a book release called “Celebrating Inclusive Innovations”.

The welcome address for the Award Ceremony was given by Dr. Nirmalya Bagchi, Chairman, Steering Committee, CIPS & Director General (I/c), Administrative Staff College of India (ASCI), Hyderabad. Speaking about CIPS, he mentioned that CIPS was institutionalized to take up innovations and replicate the same across the country. He urged innovators to reach out to CIPS to take their ideas to the next level for the benefit of the larger community. He said that this Award ceremony will be held every year, especially in the Northeast part of India. The concentration on the region was justified by him saying that working on the hills has its own challenges and CIPS is trying to create a framework where recognition is provided to people who are doing good work in various sectors.

The Genesis of the CIPS Award Scheme was given by Dr. Anjali Hazarika, Chairperson of formulation of the Awards, Member, Advisory Council, CIPS, Hyderabad. She said that the award ceremony marks a significant milestone in the evolution of CIPS, and this ceremony is a festival of innovation. Speaking about the genesis , she said that the 13 finance commission conducted a survey of states in India to find out the innovation index prevalent in the States. 2010-2020 was declared as a decade of innovation. The report said- there was no data surveillance in different departments, no cross fertilization of ideas among various departments, no systematic effort to cull out experiences that came out of policies, specific attention was not given to innovators, and there was no effort to build leadership to champion the innovation cause. The Finance creation suggested the creation of CIPS to identify, take forward and replicate the innovations in the public system. CIPS studied the existing award schemes of states and found that there was an abundance of scope to focus on innovation. She added that the Award scheme coming to life today is a matter of pride. This is the first award ceremony hosted by CIPS in Shillong.

Dr. PV Ramesh, Retd, IAS, Chairperson, Awards Committee and Member, Advisory Council, CIPS, Hyderabad spoke about ASCI and CIPS as catalysts to bridge the gap between innovative practices and preserving and sharing knowledge and experiences with other States. He appreciated Meghalaya’s lifecycle approach for addressing human development challenges, and added that the award ceremony is not only an opportunity to celebrate but also to inspire Governments across the Nation.

The first part of the award ceremony included a welcome address by Dr. Valli Manickam, Director CIPS & Dean of Research and Management Studies, ASCI, Hyderabad and opening remarks by Dr. Nirmalya Bagchi, Chairman, Steering Committee, CIPS DG (I/c), ASCI, Hyderabad. The inaugural address was given by the Guest of Honour, V Srinivas, IAS, Secretary, Department of Administrative Reforms and Public Grievances, Government of India.

Panel Sessions were held covering the following sectors-

• Health Sector, moderated by Dr. Subodh Kandamuthan, Director of the Dr. Kakarla Subba Rao Centre for Healthcare Management at ASCI. The panelists included Sampath Kumar, IAS, Principal Secretary, Government of Meghalaya, Dr. Phunchok Norbo, Mission Director, ABDM, Ladakh, and Dr. A. Arun Prince Milton, Scientist, ICAR, Meghalaya.
• Information technology sector moderated by PV Ramesh, Retd IAS, Chairperson, Awards Committee, CIPS. The panelists were Mukesh Repaswal, IAS, IT Director, Shimla, HP; Krishna Kumar IAS, Deputy Commissioner, Jiribam, Manipur; Isaac Zothanpouia, PM, Mizoram State e-Governance Society, Mizoram and Manabend Anil Goswami, Director, IT, Scientist E, NIC, Government of Assam.
• Education Sector moderated by Dr. Anjali Hazarika, Member of the Advisory Council at CIPS. The panel members included Shyambir, IAS, Deputy Commissioner, Ganderbal, J&K; Dev Raj Dhiman, Principal, Hamirpur, Himachal Pradesh; Varnali Deka, IAS, District Commissioner, Nalbari, Assam; Purva Garg, IAS, Secretary Education cum Chairperson, Samagra Shiksha, UT, Chandigarh.
• Environment and Rural Development Sector moderated by Dr. NV Satyanarayana, Advisor at ASCI. The panel members included Varnali Deka, IAS, District Commissioner, Nalbari, Assam; Dr. Shiv Kumar Upadhaya, Deputy Project Director, Almora, Uttarakhand; Prasada Rao Vaddarapu, IFS, Conservator of Forests, Forest Department, Tripura; Ajit Kumar Ranjan, IAS, District Commissioner, Wokha, Nagaland and Chete Lohe, CEO, Chansu Organic Kiwi Producer Company Ltd, Phek, Nagaland.

The award ceremony also included a Khasi folk dance performance followed by the vote of thanks by Dr. Valli Manickam, Director CIPS & Dean of Research and Management Studies, ASCI, Hyderabad.