West Bengal government scoops up five Skoch awards

KOLKATA: The Bengal government has won five Skoch Awards 2021 (a platinum, a gold and three silver awards) in four categories of governance.
The MSME & textile department led from the front and won four out of the five awards, including the top two. The department’s single-window system called Shilpa Sathi was selected for the highest award category, platinum. Another MSME project, auto-renewal of certificate of enlistment through online system for urban areas, won the gold award.
Two silver awards were won for online issuance of trade licence in rural areas and e-nathikaran, e-preparation and e-submission of deeds by the MSME & textile department. The only other silver award was won by West Bengal State Electricity Distribution Company Limited for sustainable performance as the second largest power utility with substantial IT transformation.
Chief minister Mamata Banerjee tweeted: “Delighted to announce that under Ease of Doing Business initiative, GoWB schemes including Silpasathi, e-Nathikaran, online system for auto-renewal of certificate of enlistment (urban) & online system for issuance of trade licence (rural) have won the esteemed SKOCH Awards. I congratulate everyone involved for their tireless efforts. The GoWB shall continue to ensure that the ease of doing business in West Bengal is one of the foremost in the country.”
Skoch Foundation, India organizes Smart Governance Award to recognize top performing government organisations and organisations working with the government, operating at local, state and national levels in the areas of health, education, rural development/ panchayati raj, urban development, finance, agriculture and transport.
States and organisations offering best governance practices in an ecologically and socio-culturally sustainable way can send nominations. They should demonstrate innovation in governance practices while adequately responding to local conditions.
A useful outcome of the Skoch Award process is the benchmark it sets to compare performance across sectors. The flagship benchmark for governance is the annual Skoch State of Governance Report.