The Chief Minister Secretariat of Bihar, National Informatics Centre and the Disaster Management Department have been jointly chosen as winners in “Pandemic Category” in Digital India Awards, 2020.

Earlier the Uttar Pradesh Food and Civil Supplies Department won the Digital India Award, 2020 under the “Excellence in Digital Governance” category. It was selected for its Points of Sale based food distribution, online billing and payment for food grains purchased from farmers, GPS tracking of vehicles transporting food grains.

Key Highlights

Bihar was selected under the Pandemic Category for its financial assistance to more than 21 lakhs of stranded workers outside Bihar. The assistance was provided through “Bihar Sahayata Mobile App”.

The Bihar Government provided Rs 1000 to workers coming from outside to Bihar and also to persons stuck in other states. The State government also provided financial assistance to the workers of other states, who got stuck in Bihar due to COVID-19. The Bihar Corona Sahayata Mobile App was used to implement the initiative. The workers will have to simply register on the mobile app. Once the verification of the workers was complete, the amount will be directly added to their account.

About Digital India Awards

The Digital India Awards are presented by President Ram Nath Kovind every year. The categories in Digital India Awards are as follows:

Innovation in Pandemic: This category felicitates the Government entity that has developed outstanding and innovative digital solution to enable the citizens to undertake various activities with ease during the time pandemic in areas such as health, education, travel, communication, etc.

Excellence in Digital Governance: This category is felicitated to the Department of Government that has comprehensive digital presence and has displayed high level of Intra Department Integration. It is awarded to Ministries, States/Union Territories and to Districts separately.

Open Data Champion: It acknowledges ministries and departments that release data sets in a timely and proactive way. It is also essential that the data released should be in compliance with the National Data sharing and Accessibility Policy.

Exemplary Product: The Digital India Award honours three products that have made their mark in Digital Governance. The product should have proved its high degree of configurability, replicability, scalability.