Felicitates winners of CIPS Awards in Srinagar
Srinagar: Lieutenant Governor Manoj Sinha today called for fostering a culture of innovation within governance for progress and development of J&K.
Speaking at a function held to felicitate the winners of Centre for Innovations in Public Systems (CIPS) Awards in Srinagar, Sinha said the CIPS Awards acknowledge and celebrate transformative initiatives in public systems to promote rapid social and economic progress and encourage others to become agents of change.
According to an official press release, he lauded the courage and dedication of all the awardees with which they have stepped forward in sectors like health, education, information technology, rural development and bring about a positive change in the lives of a large portion of the country’s population.
“Civil servants, engineers, doctors, scientists, technocrats are the administration’s backbone. Their impartiality, honesty, efficiency and fearlessness are our most valuable assets. I am proud that as a team, they have worked to serve the people and contribute to nation building,” the LG said.
The LG highlighted that the “leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi has laid a strong foundation, leading to innovative governance initiatives and made the government more sensitive to the needs of the people”.
“Prime Minister’s mantra of ‘Minimum Government, Maximum Governance’ has enhanced the ease of living for citizens and ensured seamless delivery of public services. Today, India is not only the world’s fastest-growing economy, but its future is undoubtedly bright among the largest economies. Favourable environment has been created for sustained and rapid economic development across the country,” Sinha said.
The LG called upon the officials to work on improving policy performance, managing complex challenges and effectively addressing disruptive changes that will occur in the unpredictable future.
“People’s voice must be the soul of a government policy. That’s why policies cannot be drafted in offices anymore. Policy making should be done on the ground while incorporating suggestions and needs of the citizens.
“A file is more than just a piece of paper; it contains the lives and future of thousands of people. The measure of any action is whether it improves the lives of ordinary citizens. We must pay special attention to these two important aspects and make the governance system more responsible and responsive.
“Today, in the age of Artificial Intelligence, ‘change’ is the only constant. We will have to make decisions accordingly keeping in mind growth and welfare in every sector,” the LG said.
The LG also highlighted transformation in government-to-citizen and government-to-business services in Jammu & Kashmir.
There is no doubt that in the future, new technologies like Artificial Intelligence will lead to better public policies, improved decision-making, enhanced citizen engagement, and a faster, higher-quality delivery of public services, he said.
The LG also congratulated District Administration Ganderbal for its innovative environmental initiatives.
Changemakers like Jairaj Bhattacharya, founder of the EdTech startup ConveGenius, and Swapneel Paul, Deputy Commissioner of Tinsukia, Assam, through their determination, succeeded in overcoming challenges to bring about tangible changes on the ground, he added.
He further asked the bureaucrats, technocrats to develop new tools, take innovative initiatives to solve the complex challenges and drive change and transformation in the society through technical applications.
On the occasion, the LG called for adopting the Akshaya Patra Foundation’s model to bring a significant improvement to the mid-day meal program in government schools.
He urged the bureaucrats and technocrats to put dedicated focus in the agriculture sector through technology transfer from lab to land. “We also need to take innovative initiatives to address the problems faced by farmers due to climate change,” he said.
The LG further said that the 29 reformative projects under the Holistic Agriculture Development Program (HADP) can also be implemented as per the requirement in different states/UTs of the country.
Atal Dulloo, Chief Secretary; Dr. N. Ramesh Kumar, Director General, Administrative Staff College of India; Dr. Valli Manickam, Director, Centre for Innovations in Public Systems (CIPS); M Raju, Commissioner Secretary GAD; Rehana Batul, Director J&K IMPARD; senior administrative officials and domain experts were present at the felicitation ceremony.
