Tata Trusts has announced that its flagship – project Data, Evaluation, Learning, Technology and Analysis (DELTA) has impacted 17 lakh people across 1248 villages through data-driven governance in select districts of Andhra Pradesh, Maharashtra, Odisha and Jharkhand on 6th of July. As part of the DELTA initiative, Tata Trusts has conducted tablet-based data collection with over 300 data points on a massive scale, which policy and decision makers can use to make quick and effective decisions that can drive meaningful outcomes, prioritize activities, optimize resources and track the progress of government schemes, programmes and services.
Tata Trusts initiated pilot projects in four locations – Vijayawada (Rural) in Krishna district in Andhra Pradesh covering 264 villages, Chandrapur district in Maharashtra covering 290 villages, Balasore district in Orissa covering 590 villages, and West Singhbhum district in Jharkhand covering 18 villages.
Ratan N Tata, Chairman, Tata Trusts, said, “This is an important start and is the initiation of a movement. We are going beyond the age of looking at colored data , selected data and what we are doing now is bringing in technology to bear on data collection, with a view to making it non-discretionary, to make it subject to standards being met and becoming a part of a broader network globally. It will enable people in both public and private sector to set civic goals, to evaluate the outreach and the impact of policy and initiatives.”
Tata Trusts helped the government in developing a data dashboard that will aid bureaucrats and members of parliament to understand the need. This data dashboard was launched at an event in Balasore, Odisha, recently.
Shri Sudhir Mugantiwar, Cabinet Minister of Finance, Planning, and Forest Departments, Government of Maharashtra, said, “Tata Trusts has provided assistance for creating the dashboard of statistical data, which is helping us in implementing a micro-finance model in the district. Chandrapur will become a model village in the coming 2 years with support from Tata and an organization like Tata Trusts. We thank Tata Trusts in providing their expertise and technical & sectoral knowledge in making these projects successful”.
Shri. Chandrababu Naidu, Chief Minister, Government of Andhra Pradesh, said, “Tata Trusts and the Government of Andhra Pradesh is working towards developing 264 villages on the lines of Sansad Adarsh Gram Yojana. This is the first time such a huge number of villages are being adopted. This will set an example in the country and I’m impressed with the background work and research Tata Trusts has done on these villages through their microplanning process.”
In October 2014, Prime Minister Narendra Modi launched the Saansad Adarsh Gram Yojana, which aims to create model villages – Adarsh Grams – whose progress will be monitored via a single national-level real-time web monitoring system. Advancing this effort, Tata Trusts has served as a catalyst to collect socio-economic data through data-driven governance programme. The objective is to create an open data platform that is driven by concrete data. The process involves technology-backed models of data collection and real-time updates.
Through Project DELTA, Tata Trusts will continue to support the state and administrative bodies in implementation of the multi-thematic development plans in these villages.
