West Bengal government schemes ‘Utkarsh Bangla’ (skill training of youth) and ‘Sabooj Sathi’ (cycles for students) won the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS) awards of UN.

• Utkarsh Bangla got the topmost award and emerged as a winner in the Capacity Building category. It aimed at providing vocational training to school dropouts. The beneficiaries of the scheme will be trained in driving, tailoring, repairing television and other electronic equipment’s, beautician courses etc.
• Sabooj Sathi was ranked in the first five as a champion project under ICT application: E-Government category. It providebicycles to the students of class IX to XII studying in Govt. run and Govt. aided Schools and Madrashas.The scheme was launched in September 2015.
• World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS) Awards were instituted as per requests from the WSIS stakeholders to create an effective mechanism to evaluate and recognize participation of various stakeholders in public and private sectors.

WSIS is a global multi-stakeholder platform facilitating the implementation of the WSIS Action Lines for advancing sustainable development. The summit is co-organized by ITU, UNESCO, UNDP and UNCTAD, in close collaboration with other UN organizations.