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Mani Shankar Aiyar: I'm absolutely delighted to hear about this initiative of Google.org
to set up a prize system under which Panchayats in India, particularly the states of Andhra
Pradesh and Karnataka, will be rewarded for innovations that they make in the area of
information and governance. They have specifically chosen certain very,
very important sectors of public service delivery including health and sanitation.
Education. To determine which are the best Panchayats
in terms of innovations which these Panchayats make with respect to this kind of public service
delivery. The extent of which they involve, not only
the ground server as a whole, but also those segments of the ground server which are in
need of specific or affirmative action. There is a very clear understanding of the
nature of Panchayati Raj and the importance of Panchayati Raj as a principle instrument
of involving the community in matters relating to the community that is evident in the conception
of this Puraskar As also a incentivization of built in to it
that to the extent to which Panchayats are not adequately interacting with their constituents,
they need the ground server and the elements of the ground server.
That they should do so in order to be able to qualify themselves for the more technical
aspects of the prize relating to innovative ideas in respect to these sectors.
So my heartiest congratulations to Google.org. I think they've done the right thing in picking
the states of Andra Pradesh and Karnataka. Karnataka has been a pioneer in Panchayati
Raj and I think the same could be said for rural development in Andra Pradesh and I do
hope that sooner rather than later, this will be scaled up to cover the entire country.
I think the prizes that are being offered are very generous and therefore would act
as a genuine incentive. And if we do get more innovation, more community
involvement, more new ideas, more new action, then the dreams on which Mahatma (NO IDEA
WHAT HE IS SAYING) structure of Panchayati Raj can become much more meaningful than they
are at present. Thank you Google.