Policy Update
Suranjana Mitra
PRAYAS is a data driven framework that enables the government to visualize progress of its flagship schemes on a single platform and monitor their progress through identified Key Performance Indicators (KPIs). PRAYAS electronically captures aggregated anonymous data from IT systems of respective schemes in a predefined format at an agreed frequency and granularity through APIs. PRAYAS is able to maintain a single source of truth across multiple officers of Government. PRAYAS also helps to generate actionable insight to assess implementation and reach of different flagship schemes across various dimensions, such as Sector, Department, State and District as well as on a time scale.
Source: National Informatics Centre
Background
The core features of PRAYAS comprise of real time performance management with identification of leaders and laggards States/UTs and comparative dashboard to undertake interrelation studies to ascertain correlations between the key parameters across multiple schemes. Through data collection and processing, PRAYAS provides results in the form of visualization dashboards with uniformity, insights and ease of interpretation. This platform with a consolidated view of 188 schemes and 1239 KPIs across 60+ Departments / Ministries and 7 sectors paves the path for better Governance.
Source: National Informatics Centre
The data used to monitor real time performance is collected through electronic mode with well-defined frequency and granularity. The provision for alert generation is also in place for data sharing at defined periodic intervals. For data standardization, Local Government Directory (LGD) is being used. PRAYAS web application is developed by integration of visualization engine with defined user authorizations and Parichay authentication.
Source: National Informatics Centre
PRAYAS enables implementation agencies to monitor progress of Schemes/ Programs, through comparative view, graphic presentation, identify better performing Regions/ States/ Union Territories, etc, through which policy decision makers can get seamless access to them in order to analyse their performance.
Functioning
Vision behind the creation of PRAYAS is to provide an integrated and consistent view of the performance of Government Programs/Schemes and is designed to facilitate data-driven governance for efficient management/decisions. The platform is designed and developed by Data Analytics (DA), Informatics Division, NIC, and Centre of Excellence for Data Analytics (CEDA), NICSI.
The objectives of Prayas include:
- Providing a holistic view of flagship programs and schemes and monitor their reach and implementation through KPIs
- Analysing schemes/programs generating insights for faster decision making
- Studying inter-relations among schemes and compare their progress
- Building a secure platform with authentic consistent and regularly updated data
- Keeping authorities updated with the progress of their schemes in different regions
Source: eGov Products & Services
Visualizations
- Provides overview of scheme progress, presentation of top performers and laggards at State/ District level
- Provisions map view to build in visual aid and comprehend the situation on ground across the country in a better manner
- Displays time-series view of data to allow assessment of the progress of various schemes over a period viz. yearly, quarterly, monthly, etc., provides opportunity to analyze growth as per selected time period
- Enables drill-down of schemes with a multitude of analytical visualizations including graphs, charts, quadrant analysis, exploratory analysis, and other representative tableaus for representing and quickly analysing data
- Single view glance of schemes and programs being implemented across Ministries and Departments
- Well aided with consistent visuals to enable administrative officers to identify root cause of problems, take decisions and ensure timely measures for ongoing schemes
- Sector-wise schemes view to identify schemes across sectors such as Social and Welfare, Finance & Economy, Technology and Governance
- Department-wise scheme views to allow users to select the specific Ministry such as Finance and view schemes such as PM Mudra Yojana, PM Suraksha Bima Yojana, Stand Up India, Sukanya Samriddhi Yojana etc.
Impact
In Government, the most traditional use of data analysis has been the statistical analysis of data collected through various surveys, census, indices, etc. In the traditional methodology, the insights generated from the analysis of the available data were provided to government authorities for effective policy formulation or planning of new programmes, schemes as well as preparation of the budget of the government. With the launch of the Digital India Program, over the past six years, a wide range of government initiatives and schemes (Central as well as State) are today making extensive use of data and employing best-in-class analytical tools to derive value out of this data.
Right from the concept to formulation, implementation to the monitoring of a scheme, data is now being extensively used in almost every aspect of a project or initiative. For instance, data is at the core of many flagship programmes such as Swachh Bharat Mission, Housing for all, One Nation One Ration Card, Pradhan Mantri Ujjwala Yojana, Fertilizers Distribution, to name a few. NIC’s in-house developed tool called Darpan has helped many ministries and organizations by extracting data from various IT systems and create dashboards and insights from this data. Similarly, Prayas is monitoring the progress of the flagship programmes of the government based on defined Key Performance Indicators (KPIs).
Benefits to Stakeholders
- Prayas empowers policy makers to analyse performance of schemes for better financial planning and structuring of future schemes
- Undertake inter-relation & comparative study of the schemes across States/ Union Territories and derive insights
- Enables implementation agencies to monitor progress of Schemes/ Programs across the Country till last mile, through comparative view identify better performing Regions/ States/ Union Territories, share success stories and best practices
- Benefit citizens with timely implementation of schemes and access to intended benefits till last mile.
Source: eGov Products & Services
Data is emerging as the key resource of a Digital Economy. Citizens, organizations, and society at large will benefit from the democratization of data as it will become usable to anyone to derive insights and build inclusive solutions for the development of our society. However, various researches also suggest that much of the data is still not analysed and has huge untapped potential.
One of the major challenges right now is the fact that data is currently residing in silos and thus to unleash the true potential of this data, various IT systems must collaborate and operate in a symbiotic fashion. The National API Exchange Platform set up by NIC is supporting a safe and secure flow of data between different systems, based on the mutual understanding of the participating entities. The need of the hour is to understand the significance of good quality data and employ it for the betterment of society.
Way forward
Every year, the government launches new programs or renews old ones for the welfare of the people at large. Sometimes, not being aware of the proper schemes/programs can alienate the people from their entitlement to avail the benefits. Prayas has been built with a vision – to provide an integrated and consistent view of the performance of Government Programs/ Schemes. Citizens can also view the performance of some schemes. It helps to monitor the progress of scheme implementation and track that benefits reach till the remotest part of the country. Assimilated learnings and insights facilitate planning for future initiatives and programs.
More importantly, this platform is preconfigured hence the States can readily use this platform to onboard their state specific flagship programs/ schemes and KPIs in minimal time for reviewing their progress till district/ sub-district level. The platform supports automated detection of exceptions in trends of incoming data such as sudden rise of 200% in person days generated under MGNREGA in the State or sudden drop of people visiting Health and Wellness Centre. Prayas is designed to cater to the data-driven governance and outcomes would get enriched over time.
References
- PRAYAS | National Informatics Centre | India. (n.d.). https://www.nic.in/project/prayas/#:~:text=Pursuing%20Excellence%20in%20Governance,Key%20Performance%20Indicators%20(KPIs)
- Prayas – Pursuing excellence in governance. (n.d.). Informatics Article. https://informatics.nic.in/article/645
- Informatics | An e-governance publication from NIC. (2023, January 1). https://informaticsweb.nic.in/article/prayas-pursuing-excellence-in-governance
- Dhingra, A., Mittal, P. K., & Maurya, A. P. (2021). EGov Products & Services. informatics.nic.in, 23–25. https://informatics.nic.in/uploads/pdfs/0647ac9d_23_26_eps_prayas_compressed.pdf
- P R A Y A s. (n.d.). https://prayas.nic.in/
About the author: Suranjana Mitra is a Research Intern at IMPRI and holds a postgraduate degree in Political Science. She has a strong interest in Public policy analysis and policy making.
Acknowledgment- The author extends sincere gratitude to the IMPRI team for reviewing the article and for providing the opportunity to write the article.
Disclaimer: All views expressed in the article belong solely to the author and not necessarily to the organisation.
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