India’s “Meri Panchayat” mobile app has been internationally recognized with the prestigious WSIS Prizes 2025 Champion Award, showcasing India’s leadership in digital grassroots governance and inclusive civic engagement.
Highlights:
- Award: WSIS Prizes 2025 Champion in Cultural Diversity and Identity, Linguistic Diversity and Local Content.
- Event: WSIS+20 High-Level Event, Geneva, July 2025.
- Honour Conferred to: Union Minister Rajiv Ranjan Singh in New Delhi.
- Recognition Received By: Ms. Sunita Jain, NIC-MoPR, in Geneva.
- Developed By: Ministry of Panchayati Raj & NIC under MeitY.
- Impact: Empowers 2.65 lakh Gram Panchayats and 950 million rural citizens.
- Key Features: Real-time data access, multilingual interface, participatory tools, transparency-focused.
In a landmark moment for India’s digital rural transformation, the innovative “Meri Panchayat” mobile application has been honored with the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS) Prizes 2025 Champion Award. Recognized under the Action Line Category: Cultural Diversity and Identity, Linguistic Diversity and Local Content, the award celebrates the app’s pivotal role in empowering rural citizens through technology-driven governance.
The award was presented during the WSIS+20 High-Level Event 2025, held from July 7 to 11 in Geneva, Switzerland. The event was jointly hosted by the ITU and the Swiss Confederation, and co-organized by UNESCO, UNDP, UNCTAD, and ITU. On behalf of the Government of India, Ms. Sunita Jain, Senior Director at NIC–MoPR, received the prestigious award on July 10 in Geneva.
A formal felicitation ceremony was held in New Delhi, where the WSIS Champion Certificate was presented to Union Minister of Panchayati Raj, Shri Rajiv Ranjan Singh alias Lalan Singh, in the presence of Minister of State Prof. S. P. Singh Baghel, Secretary Vivek Bharadwaj, and senior ministry officials.
Minister Singh commended the app for catalyzing citizen-centric governance at the grassroots through digital inclusion. He stressed the need to further leverage such platforms to enhance transparency, participatory democracy, and bridge rural knowledge gaps.
Developed by the Ministry of Panchayati Raj in collaboration with NIC under the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology, the Meri Panchayat App serves as an inclusive m-Governance platform, revolutionizing public service delivery across 2.65 lakh Gram Panchayats and impacting over 950 million rural citizens in India.
Key features of the app include:
- Real-time access to Panchayat budgets, payments, and development plans
- Data on elected representatives, infrastructure, and civic services
- Tools to view and track GPDPs and project status
- Integrated weather updates, social audit, and fund utilization
- Grievance redressal, with geo-tagging and geo-fencing
- Multilingual support across 12+ Indian languages
Importantly, the app empowers rural citizens to propose projects, rate works, and participate in Gram Sabha discussions, enhancing civic engagement and accountability.
By winning this prestigious global award, “Meri Panchayat” stands as a symbol of India’s leadership in building inclusive, transparent, and participatory digital governance—from the grassroots up.
