Thiruvananthapuram, November 7  2020:  Winners of the annual Kerala State e-Governance Awards  for 2018-19 have been declared. Awards were declared in 8 categories including e-citizen service delivery, mobile governance, e-learning, e-health and social media. The top performing  Akshaya e-kendras  ( e-citizen service centres) were also honoured.
Commenting on the awards, in a message for the commemorative publication compiled on the awards,  Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan said: " I am happy to see that  many departments, undertakings and institutions of the state, have taken up the challenge to create and deploy new and innovative ways  to reach out to all citizens in Kerala.  It is particularly satisfying to me that quite a few of these e-Governance outreaches have been developed in-house, by staff of the concerned departments without depending on outside agencies."
The Chief Minister added: "We live in an Information Society. In Kerala we have long recognized that information about official projects, must be shared in a transparent manner. This can only happen on the bedrock of reliable communication.  We are proud to be the first and so far, only state in India which has formally declared that access to a reliable Internet connection is a basic right of the citizen."
Among innovations recognized this year, the initiatives of the Kerala Police were rated very highly by the jury. These included CyberDome, a unique technology Research and Development centre in TechnoPark, Thiruvananthapuram, focussed on cyber security and India's first humonoid police robot, KP-Bot.
Citizen e-services that were honoured included: Suvega, the automated building permit system in use in Kozhikode and KOMPASS, the online mining permit system of the Department of Mining and Geology. e-Grantz, the unique software developed by the Scheduled Caste Development Department   for online Scholarship  dispersal  system for  eligible students from LKG to post graduation courses was also an award winner this year.
The Kerala state Soil Survey and Soil Conservation Department in association with IIITM-K has developed a unique  Google app to give soil information directly  to farmers in Malayalam. The app called MAM -- Mobile Application on Mannu -- is also a winner in the mobile governance category.
In the e-health category,the National Health Mission (Kerala) is being honoured for its  comprehensive newborn screening programme, Shalabham. This is the first birth defect registry in the country by any state.
The WeDeserve programme in Kasargod,  which has  reached assistive devices  like wheel chair  or hearing aids to  over 750 physically challenged persons is also the  winner  of a special award.
One winner in e-learning,  the Educational Multi Media Research Centre at  Calicut University    is a pioneer in  Massive Open Online Courses ( MOOC) and has  created  over a dozen courses for the national e-learning platform, SWAYAM.
The top 6 best performing Akshaya e-kendras were also awarded. They are based in Korome,  Wayanad; Kurisummoodu, Kottayam;  Pushpa Junction, Kozhikode; Koliyadi,Wayanad, Central Junction, Pathanamthitta  and Ezhamkulam, Pathanamthitta.
The Kerala e-Governance Awards have completed 10 years since inception and is one of the most hotly contested awards for innovation in the state. The awards are sponsored by the Kerala State IT Mission (KSITM) and administered by the Institute of Management of Government (IMG). The Jury for this year's awards was chaired by Kerala cadre IAS officer  Aruna Sundarajan, Former Kerala IT Secretary and most recently Union Secretary for Telecommunications.