About Pragati | UPSC Current Affairs

Description

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Context: The Prime Minister of India chaired the 41st edition of the PRAGATI meeting.

Key Notes of the Meeting

In the meeting, 9 key infrastructure projects were reviewed;
- 3 projects of the Ministry of Road Transport & Highways.
- 2 projects of the Ministry of Railways.
- 1 project each was from the Ministry of Power, Ministry of Coal, Ministry of Petroleum & Natural Gas and Ministry of Health & Family Welfare.
These 9 projects have a combined cost of over Rs. 41,500 crores and they are related to the developmental work in 13 states.
The Prime Minister urged the Ministries and State Governments to utilize the PM GatiShakti portal for the planning of infrastructure projects.
- He insisted on the expeditious resolution of land acquisition, utility shifting and other issues for the timely completion of projects.
- He emphasised promoting and ensuring proper coordination between central government ministries and state governments.
The Prime Minister also reviewed ‘Mission Amrit Sarovar’. He advised all Ministries and State Governments to complete Amrit Sarovar's work in mission mode before the onset of the monsoon.
- Prime Minister suggested block-level monitoring for the timely completion of the target of 50,000 Amrit Sarovars.

PRAGATI Platform

PRAGATI (Pro-Active Governance and Timely Implementation) Platform was launched in March 2015.
The main objective of the initiative is to introduce e-transparency and e-accountability with real-time presence and exchange among the key stakeholders to develop a culture of Pro-Active Governance and Timely Implementation of developmental projects.
The platform aimed at addressing the common man’s grievances and simultaneously monitoring and reviewing important programmes and projects of the Government of India and projects selected by State Governments.
The PRAGATI platform works based on three technologies:
- Digital data management.
- Video-conferencing.
- Geo-spatial technology.
It also boosts the principle of cooperative federalism, as it brings on one stage the Secretaries of the Government of India and the Chief Secretaries of the States.
With the help of this platform, the Prime Minister discuss the issues with the concerned Central and State officials with full information and the latest visuals of the ground-level situation.

Working Structure of PRAGATI

It is a 3-tier system (Prime Minister's Office (PMO), Union Government Secretaries, and Chief Secretaries of the States)
Prime Minister holds a monthly programme to interact with the Government of India Secretaries, and Chief Secretaries through Video-conferencing enabled by data and geo-informatics visuals.
- The programme is generally held on the Fourth Wednesday (known as PRAGATI Day).
Issues to be presented before the PM are selected from the available database regarding Public Grievances, ongoing Programmes and pending Projects.
- The selected issues are uploaded 7 days before the PRAGATI day. These issues can be viewed by the Union Government Secretaries and Chief Secretaries.
- Union Government Secretaries and Chief Secretaries have to put their comments and updates about the flagged issues within three days.