Context: The Indian Army initiated the first phase of Project NAMAN, with General Upendra Dwivedi, Chief of the Army Staff, and Mrs. Sunita Dwivedi, President of the Army Wives Welfare Association (AWWA).

About Project NAMAN

• Description: The first phase was launched in August 2024 by General Upendra Dwivedi, Chief of the Army Staff.

• The project ensures care and support for veterans and their families extending services to military stations and surrounding localities.

• Objective: To provide dedicated support and services to Defence Pensioners, Veterans, and their families through a streamlined digital pension system called SPARSH (System for Pension Administration Raksha).

Key Features

• Project NAMAN is focused on implementing SPARSH (System for Pension Administration Raksha) which is a digital pension system designed to simplify and automate pension-related processes for Defence Pensioners.

• The project aims to create accessible facilitation points for Veterans and Next of Kin (NOK) across India.

• Through a tripartite agreement, reception and facilitation centers have been established for Army Veterans, Pensioners, War Widows, and NOKs.

• In the first phase, 14 CSCs have been set up at key locations across India, including New Delhi, Jalandhar, Leh, Dehradun, Lucknow, Jodhpur, Bengdubi, Gorakhpur, Jhansi, Secunderabad, Saugor, Guntur, Ahmedabad, and Bangalore. The project plans to expand to around 200 centers nationwide over the next 2-3 years.

• Each CSC is managed by a Village Level Entrepreneur (VLE), selected from veterans or NOKs by Local Military Authorities (LMAs). These VLEs are trained by CSC e-Governance India Limited and receive a monthly grant of Rs 20,000 from HDFC Bank for the first year to support and sustain the centers.

• These Common Service Centres (CSCs) provide SPARSH-enabled pension services, along with government-to-citizen (G2C) and business-to-customer (B2C) services, all in one location.

About SPARSH Portal:

• SPARSH is an integrated system for automation of sanction and disbursement of defence pension.

• The portal processes pension claims and credits pension directly into the bank accounts of defence pensioners without relying on any external intermediary.

• The portal is also available for pensioners to view their pension related information, access services and register complaints for redressal of grievances.

• As part of the SPARSH system, Service Centres will be established to provide last mile connectivity to pensioners who may be unable to directly access the SPARSH portal for any reason.