Topic of the Day – Rashtriya Gram Swaraj Abhiyan

Government schemes are an important part of the polity and governance segments of the UPSC civil services exam. In this edition of Topic of the Day, you can read about the Rashtriya Gram Swaraj Abhiyan for the UPSC exam.

RGSA

Rashtriya Gram Swaraj Abhiyan (RGSA) aims to build infrastructure and step up initiatives for e-governance. The focus of the scheme would be on training, building infrastructure, initiating projects for e-governance under the e-Panchayat Mission Mode Project (MMP). The scheme covers all states and Union Territories and also includes institutions of rural local government in non-Part IX areas, where panchayats do not exist. It is managed by the Ministry of Panchayati Raj.

RGSA Funding

• The sharing ratio for the state components will be 60:40 barring the Northeast and hilly states where it would be 90:10.
• For Union Territories, the central share will be 100 percent.
• The total proposed cost of the scheme is Rs 7255.50 crore

Actionsoft

• Actionsoft, a mobile application has been developed as part of this initiative for the purpose of reporting at the field-level and monitoring of physical progress of the works undertaken by the panchayats.
• The photos of every asset at various stages of work for activities included under the Gram Panchayat Development Plan (GPDP) and the geographical coordinates are captured by this application.

Gram Panchayat Development Plan (GPDP) Award

• “Gram Panchayat Development Plan (GPDP) Award”, a new award has been introduced.
• The award would be conferred to the top three-gram panchayats with the best planning, across the country.
• Annual awards in various thematic areas will be awarded to the individuals and panchayats in recognition of their performance and for incentivizing such performances.

Local Government Directory Application

• A Local Government Directory Application having unique codes for blocks, panchayats and villages will be developed by the Rural Development Ministry.
• It will be released for wide usage across all ministries to ensure interoperability across their databases.

Rashtriya Gram Swaraj Abhiyan Impact

• The Rashtriya Gram Swaraj Abhiyan would assist over 2.55 lakh Panchayati Raj Institutions (PRIs) in developing governance capabilities to deliver on Sustainable Development Goals by means of inclusive local governance with a focus on optimum exploitation of available resources.
• The key principles of Sustainable Development Goals, i.e. universal coverage, leaving no one behind, reaching the farthest first, along with gender equality will be embedded in the design of training, training modules and materials as well as all the other interventions in capacity building.
• Priority will be given to subjects of national importance like digital transactions, water conservation, education, sanitation, immunization, nutrition, primary health services, poverty etc that affect the excluded groups the most.
• Programmatic convergence with Mission Antyodaya Gram Panchayats and 115 NITI Ayog identified Aspirational districts is kept in view while designing the scheme. As Panchayats have the representation of women, Schedule Castes, Schedule Tribes and are institutions at the grassroots level, strengthening Panchayats would result in the promotion of inclusiveness and equity, along with Social Justice and economic development of the community.
• Enhanced use of e-governance by Panchayati Raj Institutions will help in achieving improved levels of transparency and service delivery. Gram Sabhas would be strengthened to operate as productive institutions with social inclusion, in particular, the vulnerable groups.
• An institutional structure for capacity building of PRIs would be established at the national, state and district levels with adequate infrastructure and human resources.
• Panchayats would be strengthened through incentivization on the basis of nationally important criteria which would promote competitive spirit among them.

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