Shillong, Jan 19: Meghalaya was awarded for innovation in health sector along with other States at the 1st Award Ceremony of the Centre for Innovations in Public Systems (CIPS) at Shillong on Friday evening.

The award ceremony was organized for the 1st time by CIPS, in collaboration with the Government Innovation Lab (GIL), Government of Meghalaya, with Administrative staff College of India (ASCI) as knowledge partners.

The awards were instituted with an aim to encourage innovators from small states and inclusive innovations in public systems across the Northeast Indian States, Union Territories and Hill States, in the field of Education, Health, Information Technology and Rural Development. Awards were given to states on Friday evening who stood out in terms of innovative practices in the mentioned sectors.

Addressing the audience, the Chief Guest of the ceremony, Meghalaya Chief Minister Conrad K Sangma congratulated CIPS and ASCI for organizing the innovation awards ceremony in the State. He said that this is a recognition of all the innovations that have been taking place not only in the State, but in States across the country. He mentioned that the best way to achieve the state goals is through collaborative efforts and stated that in the last 5 years, although he contributed in laying down the vision for the State, the capable and collaborative efforts of the administrative staff and functionaries were responsible for a plethora of innovations brought about in various sectors through a decentralized approach, and added that this can be an example for other practitioners present at the award ceremony to follow.

He added that innovation in all forms is always great, but any innovation is only good as long as it is able to help the people achieve their goals. One has to know the actual problem for innovation to work effectively, often those that are not easily identifiable at first sight. The ability to diagnose the problem and then adapt it to the state scenario is crucial. For instance, when addressing high maternal and infant mortality in the State, he said it was important to economically engage mothers and women through SHGs and create an enabling environment for women in decision making realms at the grassroots. In line with this, currently Meghalaya is at 95 percent households covered under SHGs. He also informed that the State’s EAP funding demand has increased to Rs. 12,500 cr from Rs. 2500 cr, in just 5 years.

Meghalaya has come up to the level of larger states in terms of EAP funding requirement due to the fact that there is a strong manpower that is able to prepare Detailed Project Reports (DPRs) and adhere to the requirements of EAPs in a very short period of time. He stressed on the importance of working together as a team and the need to streamline and simplify rules and processes.

The special address was given by the Guest of Honour in the Award Ceremony, Dr. V.K Paul, Member, NITI Ayog, Government of India. He informed that the official mandate of NITI Ayog includes two elements- 1) promoting cooperative federalism and 2) competitive federalism. He stated that this award ceremony is more focused on the competitive federalism aspect. He appreciated the State’s initiatives in promoting innovation in the public systems. He added that the country is moving towards strengthening health systems across the country through various National Programmes to reach the last mile of the population. He requested the policy practitioners and administrators to create a paradigm that would enable running hospitals in the public sector using the best systems of administration. For CIPS in particular, he highlighted focused innovation through the lens of SDGs. He also spoke about the need to prioritize the awards and innovations in the education sector, to build a strong human capital.

VK Paul went on to appreciate Meghalaya’s Village Health Councils (VHCs) and said that it has the ability to transform health in a significant manner. He expressed surprise at the implementation and impact of CMSMS and the impact seen in terms of 50 percent decline in maternal and child deaths in the State from 2020-23.

He further went on to appreciate the Meghalaya Early Childhood (ECD) Mission. He said that the government of Meghalaya has given the right priority to the right innovations through various interventions. He also spoke about the importance of interventions in prevention pathways in the domains of mental health, oral health and elderly health, among others. He urged everyone present at the award ceremony to pay special attention to these paradigms. He congratulated the State on allotting above 8 percent of its budget expenditure to healthcare and urged other states to learn from the Meghalaya Model of addressing healthcare challenges.

Development Commissioner & Principal Secretary Health & Family Welfare Department, Government of Meghalaya, Sampath Kumar, spoke about Meghalaya’s State Capability Enhancement Approach to drive policy and innovation in solving complex development problems. He described the idea of building state capability as a homegrown approach of the Government of Meghalaya and said the State has an immense capacity to bring transformative development. He added that the State has been mobilizing the existing government workforce at cutting edge levels to build motivation among functionaries to address human development challenges, especially in terms of health.

He also spoke at length about the 5 pillar State Capability Enhancement framework namely – 1) building local leadership through problem solving, 2) Effective Use of Data and Research, 3) Addressing systemic challenges, 4) Building political supportability, and 5) Bridging citizen state relationship.

He emphasized on the importance of collaborative efforts that led to 50 per cent reduction in maternal deaths in the State from 2020-2023.

He said that being a landlocked state, Meghalaya has a huge human resource and the state is working towards unleashing the capability of children and youth, by designing the Early Childhood Development mission to build cognitive capital. He also informed that the state is unleashing the potential of a massive network of Self-Help Groups (SHG) women groups, where currently more than 90 percent of rural households are covered under SHG network.

He spoke about the State’s reservation policy for women in Village Employment Committees (VECs) for the post of Chairman and Secretaries. He also delved deeper into the 3-actor model of Meghalaya’s State Capability Enhancement Framework, where Authorisers, Champions and Facilitators are playing a crucial role in building the capability of the State to tackle crucial human development challenges.

The list of awardees along with the respective innovations are as follows:
1. Sampath Kumar, IAS: Positive Public Health Management Meghalaya
2. Dr Phunchok Norboo, Mission Director, ABDM, Ladakh: Integration of Ayushman Bharat Digital Mission with e-Hospital
3. Ram Kumar S, IAS: Meghalaya Drone Delivery Network
4. A. Arun Prince Milton, Scientist, ICAR, Meghalaya: Rapid and cost-effective visual Diagnostic Kit for African Swine Fever Virus
5. Shantanu Gotmare, IAS: Kritagyata- Online Pension Sanction and Payment Tracking System
6. Mukesh Repaswal, IAS, Information technology Director, Shimla, Himachal Pradesh: Mukhya Mantri Seva Sankalp 1100
7. Krishna Kumar, IAS, Deputy Commissioner, Jiribam, Manipur: Manipur E-district Portal
8. Issac Zothanpuia, Project Manager, Mizoram State e-governance Society, Mizoram: RTI Online to promote accountability and for ease-of filling requests
9. Pallav Gopal Jha, IAS, Managing Director, GMDW&, Assam: Web-based water supply connections, Registration & Payment System
10. Shyambir, IAS, Deputy Commissioner, Ganderbal, J&K: MASHAAL-E-GAASH- A people-driven initiative to promote literacy
11. Dev Raj Dhiman, Principal, Himachal Pradesh: Inquiry Based learning for holistic development
12. Varnali Deka, IAS, DC, Nalbari, Assam: Poshan Club: Nurturing children for welfare schemes
13. Purva Garg, IAS, sECRETARY education, Samagra Shiksha: ECCE Early Childhood Care and Education as per new education policy 2020.
14. Varnali Deka, IAS, DC, Nalbari, Assam: Mushrooms as a tasty nutraceutical supplement
15. Shiv Kumar Upadhyaya & Deepak Shah: Village as Harbingers of change toward optimal utilization of resources
16. Prasada Rao Vaddarapu, IFS: Bamboo brooms with handles as alternatives to plastics
17. Ajit Kumar Ranjan, IAS, DC, Wokha Nagaland: Entrepreneurs Task Force, one stop model for rural entrepreneurs
18. Chete Lohe, CEO, Kiwi Production company, Phek, Nagaland: Promotion & Marketing of Organic Kiwi Fruit.

The Award ceremony also included a book release called “Celebrating Inclusive Innovations”.