Panchayati Raj Initiatives Win National e-Governance Awards 2026
Four Panchayati Raj-related initiatives have been selected for the National Awards for e-Governance (NAeG) 2026 out of 17 projects across seven award categories, highlighting the growing role of Gram Panchayats in advancing digital governance and citizen-centric service delivery. The awards will be conferred at the 29th National Conference on e-Governance, scheduled for July 1-2, 2026, in Jaipur, Rajasthan, jointly organized by the Department of Administrative Reforms and Public Grievances (DARPG), the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY), and the Government of Rajasthan. The conference theme is "Viksit Bharat 2047: AI-Enabled, Data-Driven and Secure Digital Governance."
Among the 17 projects, there are 10 Gold Awards, 6 Silver Awards, and 1 Jury Award. Each Gold Award includes a trophy, certificate, and an incentive of ₹10 lakh, while Silver Awardees receive ₹5 lakh, to be utilized for project implementation or bridging resource gaps in public welfare areas.
The four Panchayati Raj award winners include:
- Gold Award: Panchayat Advancement Index (PAI) – Data Driven Governance for Viksit Bharat, Ministry of Panchayati Raj (National Level) in the category "Digital Transformation by Use of Data Analytics in Digital Platforms by Central Ministries/States/UTs"
- Gold Award: Kadepur Gram Panchayat, Sangli District, Maharashtra in the category "Grassroots Level Initiatives by Gram Panchayats for Deepening/Widening of Service Delivery"
- Silver Award: Bijoy Nagar Gram Panchayat, West Tripura District, Tripura in the category "Grassroots Level Initiatives by Gram Panchayats for Deepening/Widening of Service Delivery"
- Gold Award: e-Aarogya Dhamni – Transforming Healthcare through e-Governance, Health Department, Zilla Parishad Nandurbar, Maharashtra in the category "District Level Initiatives in e-Governance"
The Panchayat Advancement Index (PAI) is the Ministry of Panchayati Raj's flagship instrument for measuring Gram Panchayat performance across India, assessing them on indicators aligned with the nine themes of Localized Sustainable Development Goals (LSDGs).
Kadepur Gram Panchayat has built an end-to-end digital governance ecosystem delivering over 1,355 services fully online to more than 4,300 beneficiaries through a completely paperless e-Office, eight AI-powered administrative applications, Blockchain-enabled record management, and GIS-based property geo-tagging. It is also the only Gram Panchayat in India with formally approved policies on Artificial Intelligence, Blockchain, Nanotechnology, Biotechnology, and Robotics.
Bijoy Nagar Gram Panchayat achieved a PAI 2.0 score of 88.55 (Grade A), reflecting a 38% improvement over PAI 1.0, with Own Source Revenue growing by nearly 194%. The panchayat delivers over 100 services online through a fully functional e-Office, uses the Gram Barta platform for real-time voice communication with every household, and has achieved 100% digital literacy among women.
The e-Aarogya Dhamni initiative by Zilla Parishad Nandurbar has deployed modern digital tools to extend fast, quality healthcare services to citizens in tribal and remote areas of Nandurbar District.
The dedicated Gram Panchayat category was introduced following the Ministry of Panchayati Raj's advocacy and has seen growing participation, with over 1.65 lakh Gram Panchayats from 30 States participating in NAeG 2026, up from over 1.45 lakh entries from 26 States and Union Territories in NAeG 2025.
Previous year's winners in the Gram Panchayat category included: Gold Award to Rohini Gram Panchayat (Dhule, Maharashtra), Silver Award to West Majlishpur Gram Panchayat (West Tripura, Tripura), and Jury Awards to Palsana Gram Panchayat (Surat, Gujarat) and Suakati Gram Panchayat (Kendujhar, Odisha).