The Ministry of Rural Development, Government of India, conducted a two-day National Workshop on "Strengthening Digital Data Systems and Evidence-Based Learning" under the Deendayal Antyodaya Yojana-National Rural Livelihood Mission (DAY-NRLM) on October 12-13, 2026, in Gurugram, Haryana. The workshop brought together representatives from State Rural Livelihoods Missions, NITI Aayog, international organizations including the World Bank, GIZ, J-PAL, Gates Foundation, 3ie, BRAC, as well as domestic institutions like NABARD, NPCI, financial institutions, and development partners.
In his keynote address, Shri Rohit Kansal, Secretary of the Department of Rural Development, revealed that approximately 10 crore women organized into nearly 92 lakh Self-Help Groups (SHGs) have leveraged formal credit of about ₹14 lakh crore. He emphasized that the next phase of the mission must focus on strengthening around 87 lakh enterprises and tracking the progress of Lakhpati Didis toward the target of six crore beneficiaries. Quoting "what gets measured gets done; what gets measured gets improved," Kansal called for the LokOS platform to evolve into an operational platform integrated with banking portals for a seamless digital credit journey. He stressed the need for data to be complete, consistent, current, correct, and verifiable, with the mission transitioning from monitoring dashboards to decision-support systems.
Shri Vipin Kumar, Additional Secretary of the Department of Rural Development, outlined three strategic shifts for DAY-NRLM: from inclusion to prosperity, from credit access to quality credit, and from supported to self-reliant institutions. He stated that LokOS can build a digital record of credibility for each woman based on her saving and repayment behavior, emphasizing that this data belongs to the women who generate it and must be used in their interest.
The Ministry is working with State Rural Livelihoods Missions and technical partners to systematically resolve operational and system-related issues, assign clear responsibilities and timelines, strengthen training and handholding of field functionaries and community cadres, and facilitate cross-learning through replication of state best practices. The workshop reviewed progress in digitizing SHG, VO (Village Organization), and CLF (Cluster Level Federation) profiles and recording their financial transactions on LokOS. Data validation was identified as the foundation for transactions, credit histories, and program analysis.
The workshop aimed to strengthen the monitoring framework by moving to household, institutional, and enterprise outcomes, using LokOS as an evidence base, connecting administrative datasets across schemes, and investing in state capacity to generate and use evidence. Other attendees included Shri Amit Shukla (Joint Secretary), Dr. Monika (Deputy Secretary), Smt. Rangoli Pathak (Joint Director) from the Ministry of Rural Development, along with state-level officials including Shri Suraj Bhan (CEO, Haryana SRLM), Shri Himanshu Sharma (CEO, Bihar SRLM), and Shri Sumit Kumar (CEO-ZP, Gurugram, Haryana).