Spectrum harmonisers, Bihar power districts & cashless transaction village in PM's awards shortlist

NEW DELHI: The telecom department's harmonisation that led to availability of extra spectrum worth Rs 35,000 crore, a Gujarat company that implemented PM Modi's idea of 'neem-coated urea', a village in Maoist-infested Dantewada that turned to cashless transactions and districts of Bihar that outperformed others in rural electrification are among nominees that could win recognition from the PM.

There are 55 'public governance innovations' and districts or states with best performances in the PM's six priority programmes that have been shortlisted for awards from the PM on Civil Services Day — on April 21.

The Centre has received over 2,300 nominations, with Karnataka and Telangana right up on the chart for performance on the PM's Start-Up India programme, while Hyderabad emerged on top in sanctioning maximum loans to women, SC and ST entrepreneurs under the Stand-Up India programme. An innovative device built in Kerala's Thrissur for early detection and screening of breast cancer and Dantewada's Palnar that did over 1000 cashless transactions have also made it to the shortlist for the PM's awards.

Bihar has emerged a surprise champion in implementing the PM's key rural electrification scheme, Deen Dayal Upadhyaya Gram Jyoti Yojana, with Katihar, Kishenganj, Munger and Nalanda districts featuring among eight best short-listed under the scheme. Katihar with the maximum 1,003 un-electrified villages as on April 1, 2015, has electrified 583 villages as on date while the other three Bihar districts have achieved 100% electrified villages. Most districts were situated in highly flood-prone areas, making the task challenging.

The spectrum harmonisation spearheaded by former telecom secretary JS Deepak is among the top 'innovative ideas'. Scattered radio frequency carriers adjacent to each other were rearranged, doubling the size of spectrum block with incremental capex. "36.25 MHz additional spectrum was freed up in 800 MHz band and 197 MHz of additional spectrum was freed up in 1800 MHz band.

Incremental value of additional spectrum, which was carved out in harmonisation done in 2016 is Rs 35,000 crore. This initiative enabled service providers to introduce new technologies like LTE and 4G to provide higher data rates & broadband speeds," the telecom department says.

The Gujarat Narmada Valley Fertilizers & Chemical behind the urea 'neem project' is also is a strong contender for the PM's innovative idea award. Karnataka has become the first state to announce a multi-sector Start-up policy and have an 'Earmarked Funds' of Rs 200 crore to invest across multiple sectors. The state has also funded 40 ideas across different sectors with funding of Rs 14 crore.