BENGALURU: The Karnataka government on Tuesday entered into a five-year Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the Centre for Effective Governance of Indian States (CEGIS) in the presence of Chief Minister and Finance Minister Basavaraj Bommai, the government informed in a press release.
Under the GoK-MoU, CEGIS has proposed to provide technical, analytical and programmatic support in areas such as enhancement of state revenue including competency mapping and training of frontline tax officials, designing a strategy for improving administrative data quality and data use for in Education, Health, and Women and Child Development Departments, the release stated.
The CEGIS shall work closely with departments such as Finance, Education, Social Welfare, and others to identify mutually aligned areas to provide technical and analytical support. The work of CEGIS is being done pro bono as part of its ongoing efforts in this space, the release added.
Other than the CM, Ashish Dhawan, co-founder CEGIS and founder, The Convergence Foundation (TCF), I S N Prasad, Additional Chief Secretary-Finance, N Manjunatha Prasad, Principal Secretary to Chief Minister, Dr Srivatsa Krishna, Principal Secretary, DPAR (AR.) Professor Karthik Muralidharan, co-founder and scientific director, CEGIS, and Dr Vijay Pingale, president of CEGIS, were present during the signing of the MoU.
As the CM has laid out an action plan for making Karnataka a $1 trillion economy by the year 2025 in line with the Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi’s vision of making India a $5 trillion economy, the CEGIS’ work on improving the quality of administrative data shall contribute towards better measurement of outcomes by leveraging technology and usage of data for effective decision making.
Additionally, the CEGIS shall work with various departments and institutions for sustained and targeted competency building and learning of government officials to address the changing needs and aspirations of the citizens. The CEGIS is working as part of the national programme on capacity building as well.
As such, this partnership between the Government of Karnataka and CEGIS will help in cleaning up and synchronising many kinds of administrative data that exist for ensuring more effective good governance including better delivery of government programmes at the cutting-edge level, the release further said.
The Karnataka government has taken several measures with respect to administrative reforms including engaging with the Capacity Building Commission, Government of India, towards these ends. The GOK-CEGIS partnership is a key step forward in this direction.
Founded in 2019, the CEGIS aims to enable a transformative improvement in the functioning of state governments. Informed by cutting edge research and evidence as well as a practical orientation towards implementable ideas, CEGIS works with the states in preparing an analytical roadmap for governance and expenditure reforms and provides strategic implementation support to deliver on this vision.
The CEGIS provides technical support to government departments and their agencies on Outcome Measurement, Personnel Management, Strategic Public Finance and improving the state’s capacity to work with markets. At present, the CEGIS is engaged with the governments of Telangana, NCT of Delhi, Bodoland Territorial Region, Assam and Tamil Nadu, the release stated. (ANI)