West Bengal govt schemes bags 2 UN awards for innovative schemes

Two schemes of the West Bengal government for skill development and distribution of bicycles to students have won the prestigious World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS) awards of the United Nations, Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee said Thursday. The schemes are "Utkarsh Bangla" and "Sabooj Sathi".

"I am very happy to share with you that our Utkarsh Bangla and Sabooj Sathi projects have won the prestigious World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS) awards under the aegis of the United Nations," the chief minister said in a Facebook post. The "Utkarsh Bangla" project aims at creating a pool of skilled candidates who are industry ready, while under the "Sabooj Sathi" scheme, bicycles are distributed to students between class IX and XII studying in government-run and government-aided schools and madrashas of the state.

"Out of 1062 nominations in 18 categories, Utkarsh Bangla got the topmost award and emerged a winner in Capacity Building category. Sabooj Sathi ranked in the first five as a champion project under ICT application: E-Government category," she said in the post. The West Bengal government had received another UN award in 2017 for its 'Kanyashree' project, a targeted conditional cash transfer scheme aimed at promoting education among girls.

The chief minister extended her heartiest greetings and best wishes to all for winning the WSIS prizes. WSIS Prizes is an international contest to create an effective mechanism to evaluate and recognise individuals, governments and private bodies for outstanding success in implementing development-oriented strategies that leverage the power of ICTs as an enabler of the development.

The contest, organised by the WSIS in Geneva, was first held in 2012.

(With inputs from agencies.)