Employees Provident Fund Organization won the National Award on e-Governance 2015-16

The Employees’ Provident Fund Organization won the National Award on e-Governance 2015-16 for launching the Universal Account Number (UAN). The Union Ministry of Personnel, Public Grievances and Pensions will present the award in the 19th National Conference on e-governance to be held in Nagpur on 22 January 2016.

The EPFO bagged the national award in the ‘innovative use of technology in e-governance’ category and the retirement body will get a cash prize of 200000 rupees.

What is Universal Account Number (UAN)?

• UAN is an e-initiative of EPFO, launched in July 2014.

• In this initiative, all active employees are provided a universal number which can be linked to various provident fund account numbers provided to them while working in different organisations

• Statistically, 5.65 crore employees in 457000 organisations were allocated with UAN till November 2015.

• A single account number can be used through all of workers’ employments with various organisations.

• It enables the employees to switch their provident fund deposits automatically, when they change their job, just by providing UAN to the new employer.

• It also allows employees to have access to their provident fund account to view their balance and deposits on the portal, without going through the Employer.

About National Awards for e-Governance

These are presented every year to recognize and promote excellence in implementation of e-Governance initiatives.

 Purpose of Award

The purpose of the award is to:

• Recognize achievements in the area of e-Governance

• Disseminate knowledge on effective methods of designing and implementing sustainable e-Governance initiatives

• Encourage incremental innovations in successful e-Governance solutions

• Promote and exchange experiences in solving problems, mitigating risks, resolving issues and planning for success.

There would be two awards for each category:

 Gold Award: It carries a certificate for the Project and one certificate to each team member not exceeding seven in numbers (including Project Head) along with cash award of 200000 rupees to be shared equally among eligible team members.

 Silver Award: It carries a certificate for the Project and one certificate to each team member not exceeding seven in numbers (including Project Head) along with cash award of 100000 rupees to be shared equally among eligible team members.

Categories of awards

• Excellence in Government Process Re-engineering

• Outstanding performance in Citizen-Centric Service Delivery

• Innovative Use of Technology in e-Governance

• Incremental Innovations in existing projects

• Best District level initiative in citizen-centric service delivery through ICT

• Innovative use of GIS Technology in e-Governance

• Innovative use of mobile technology in e-Governance

• Sectoral Award: (Focus Sector for 2015-16: Financial Inclusion)

• Innovative Use of ICT by Central Government PSUs

• Innovative Use of ICT by State Government PSUs/Cooperatives/Federations/Societies

• Outstanding e-Governance initiative by Academic and Research institutions

• Use of ICT for Development by Non-Government Institutions