SWAGAT initiative in Gujarat demonstrates how technology can be efficiently used to resolve people's grievances: PM
Author: BI Bureau
New Delhi: Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday addressed a programme marking 20 years of completion of the StateWide Attention on Grievances by Application of Technology - SWAGAT Initiative in Gujarat via video conferencing. The Gujarat government is celebrating SWAGAT Saptah on successfully completing 20 years of the initiative. During the event, he also interacted with the past beneficiaries of the scheme.
Addressing the gathering, Prime Minister Modi expressed satisfaction that the objective behind starting SWAGAT has been successfully achieved where citizens not only find solutions to their problems but also raise issues of the entire community of hundreds.
“The attitude of the government should be friendly and common citizens can easily share their issues with them,” the Prime Minister said. He remarked that the SWAGAT initiative is completing 20 years of its existence and recalled his past experiences upon interacting with the beneficiaries. He said that it is the effort and dedication of the citizens that make the SWAGAT initiative a grand success and congratulated everyone who has contributed in this direction.
The Prime Minister said that the destiny of any scheme is determined by the intention and vision of that scheme when it is conceived. He recalled that when the initiative was launched in 2003 he was not very old as Chief Minister and he too faced the common refrain that power changes everyone. He said that he was clear to remain unchanged by the assumption of the chair.
“I was clear that I would not become a slave of the restrictions of the chair. I will remain among people and will be there for them,” he said. This determination gave birth to StateWide Attention on Grievances by Application of Technology (SWAGAT). The Prime Minister said that the idea behind SWAGAT was to welcome the views of the common citizens in democratic institutions, be it in legislation or solutions. “SWAGAT stands by the idea of Ease of Living and Reach of Governance,” the Prime Minister said.
He underlined that the good governance model of Gujarat has found its own identity in the world due to the efforts made by the government with all honesty and dedication. The Prime Minister mentioned the International Telecom Organisation which presented the prime example of good governance by SWAGAT as e-transparency and e-accountability. He also mentioned that SWAGAT drew a lot of praise from the United Nations and was also conferred the prestigious award for Public Service. The Prime Minister pointed out that Gujarat received the gold award from the Government of India for e-governance owing to SWAGAT during the Congress regime in 2011.
“For me, the biggest reward is that we could serve the people of Gujarat through SWAGAT”, the Prime Minister said. In SWAGAT we prepared a practical system. The first systems of public hearings under SWAGAT were created at the block and Tehsil levels. After that District Magistrate was made responsible at the district level. And at the state level, the Prime Minister informed that he took the responsibility on his own shoulders. This, he said, helped him a great deal to understand the impact and reach of the initiatives and schemes and the relations between implementing agencies and the end beneficiaries. SWAGAT empowered the citizens and gained credibility.
The Prime Minister noted that even though the SWAGAT programme was held only once a week, the work related to it would be done all over the month as there were hundreds of grievances. The Prime Minister also informed that he would carry out an analysis to understand if there were any specific departments, officers or regions whose complaints were registered more often than others. “An in-depth analysis was carried out where policies were also amended if needed”, Shri Modi continued, “this created a sense of trust amongst the common citizens.”
The Prime Minister said that SWAGAT changed the old notion of following the established trails in government. “We proved that governance is not limited to old rules and laws but governance takes place due to innovations and new ideas”, he added. Shri Modi recalled that in 2003, e-governance was not much of a priority by the governments of the time. Paper trails and physical files led to a lot of delays and harassment video conferencing was mostly unknown.
“Under these circumstances, Gujarat worked on futuristic ideas. And today, a system like SWAGAT has become the inspiration for many solutions to governance. Many states are working on this type of system. At the center we have also made a system called PRAGATI to review the working of the government. PRAGATI has played a big role in the rapid development of the country in the last 9 years. This concept is also based on the idea of SWAGAT.” The Prime Minister informed that he has reviewed projects worth about 16 lakh crores through PRAGATI and many projects were speeded up due to this.
Concluding the address, the Prime Minister gave the analogy of a seed sprouting into a massive tree with hundreds of branches and expressed confidence that the idea of SWAGAT will give way to thousands of new innovations in governance. He expressed delight that governance initiatives are being celebrated like this as it infuses new life and energy in them. “It will continue to serve the public by becoming a model of public-oriented governance,” the Prime Minister concluded. /BI/
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The exports of agricultural commodities from March to June 2020 shot up by 23.24 percent on-year to Rs 25,552.7 crores.
As the economy comes to a standstill amid the coronavirus-led lockdown, India’s agriculture sector has taken the baton of economic growth in its hands. The exports of agricultural commodities from March to June 2020 shot up by 23.24 percent on-year to Rs 25,552.7 crores, according to the Ministry of Agriculture & Farmers Welfare. The government said that self-reliant agriculture is critical for the goal of an Atmanirbhar Bharat and for this, agricultural export is extremely important as besides earning foreign exchange for the country, the exports help farmers, producers, and exporters to take advantage of the wider international market and increase their income.
The surge in exports has also resulted in increased production in the farm sector by increasing coverage area and productivity. The share of India’s agricultural exports and imports in the world agriculture trade in 2017 was 2.27 percent and 1.90 percent, respectively. Even during the difficult time of pandemic lockdown, India took care not to disturb the world food supply chain and continued to export, the government said.
Ministry of Agriculture has prepared a comprehensive action plan for the promotion of Agri trade; the twofold approach focuses on boosting Agri Export with emphasis on value addition and action plan for Import Substitution. Recently, the Agriculture sector has witnessed a series of reforms, giving more choices to the farmers to sell their produce at competitive rates.
To mention a few, the Export strategy focuses on the export promotion of fast-evolving niche markets of Wellness food/ Health-conscious food/nutraceuticals, Development of “Brand India” in campaign mode to help penetration into new foreign markets and of new products which automatically translates into higher value realization, Gulf countries have been identified as focus destination to increase the market share which is a strong market for India though presently India caters to only 10-12% share of their total imports. A product-market matrix has been made containing a list of products of strength that could be expanded in new geographies and a list of known markets which can be introduced with newer products.
At the behest of the Department of Agricultural Cooperation & Farmers’ Welfare, Ministry of Agriculture, product-specific Export Promotion Forums have been created to lead Agri exports to new heights. Each Export Promotion Forum shall be having exporters of the related commodity as its members along with official members representing concerned Ministries/Departments of the Central and State Governments. Chairman APEDA shall be the chairman of each of these forums. The forums will meet at least once every two months, to discuss recommendations on issues pertaining to the export.
The recommendations of the forum will be placed in the product committee / Authority of APEDA. The Forum will keep in close contact with the concerned organization of the Ministry of Agriculture such as MIDH, Extension, NPPO, etc., DGFT, Ministry of Civil Aviation, MoFPI, etc. to further the interest of agricultural export.
