Chief Minister’s Excellence Awards 2025-26: Redefining Public Service Through Innovation

Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Vishnu Deo Sai – Photo Credit -x.com/vishnudsai

IN Short

*From Vision to Impact: Chhattisgarh’s Best Governance Innovations Honoured

*Chhattisgarh Recognises Excellence in Public Administration:Chief Minister Vishnu Deo Sai declares Excellence Awards 2025–26

*10 winners selected from 312 entries across districts and departments: Focus on technology, outcomes and citizen-centric delivery

*“Governance must keep evolving to serve citizens better,” affirms the CM

Raipur: Chief Minister Vishnu Deo Sai on Thursday December 25, 2025 declared the Chief Minister’s Excellence Awards 2025–26, honouring some of the most transformative governance innovations implemented across districts and departments of the state.

The awards, instituted by the Department of Good Governance & Convergence, reaffirm the state’s commitment to placing innovation, outcomes and citizens at the centre of public administration.

The declaration reflected a broader shift in administrative culture—one where governance is no longer measured merely by intent or expenditure, but by measurable impact, scalability and the ability to solve complex, ground-level problems. The awards recognise that excellence in public service today lies at the intersection of technology, empathy and institutional reform.

Chief Minister Vishnu Deo Sai emphasised that innovation in governance is not an option but a responsibility. He noted that public systems must continuously reinvent themselves to respond to citizens’ needs with speed, transparency and integrity.

“ Chief Minister Vishnu Deo Sai underlined that each awarded initiative represents a replicable model for future-ready administration”.

CM said that Good governance is realised not merely through policies, but through continuous innovation. On the occasion of Good Governance Day, celebrated on the birth anniversary of the revered Atal Bihari Vajpayee ji, the winners of the Chief Minister’s Excellence Awards 2025–26 have been announced in Chhattisgarh to honour outstanding administrative innovations developed with public interest at the core.

The Chief Minister’s Excellence Awards 2025–26 is anchored in a rigorous, multi-stage evaluation framework designed to balance inclusivity with excellence. A total of 312 innovations were received—275 from districts and 37 from departments—demonstrating the depth of creative problem-solving emerging from every level of government.

This overwhelming response itself signals a cultural shift toward solution-oriented governance. Following a two-tier selection process, 55 innovations were shortlisted through first-level screening, leading to 13 finalists and ultimately 10 winners, evenly distributed between district and departmental categories.

The evaluation rubric placed strong emphasis on outcomes (50 points), scalability (40 points) and innovation (10 points), ensuring that recognition was grounded in real-world impact rather than conceptual novelty alone.

Among district winners, Dantewada’s Blockchain-Based Land Record Digitisation
emerged as a flagship example of technology-driven reform. By replacing manual, paper-based systems with tamper-proof blockchain architecture, the initiative reduced land record retrieval time from weeks to minutes, eliminated document fraud and dramatically accelerated service delivery—setting a new benchmark for revenue administration in tribal and remote regions.

Jashpur district’s Nirman Jashpur showcased how integrated digital monitoring can transform infrastructure governance. Covering over 7,300 works across 16 departments and 444 Gram Panchayats, the platform brought real-time visibility, geo-tagged verification and GIS-based planning into public works management, significantly improving execution quality while reducing delays and administrative fragmentation.

In Mohla-Manpur-Ambagarh Chowki, the Augmented Take-Home Ration (A-THR) innovation addressed one of the most critical social challenges—severe acute malnutrition among children. Developed in collaboration with national and international institutions, the nutrient-dense formulation achieved a 77.5% recovery rate among SAM children, demonstrating how evidence-based nutrition interventions can deliver life-altering outcomes at scale.

Gariyaband district’s Elephant Tracking and Alert App highlighted how technology can mediate coexistence between humans and wildlife. Through AI-enabled tracking and real-time alerts, the initiative reduced human casualties to near zero while significantly lowering crop damage and compensation burdens. Already adopted beyond state borders, the innovation stands as a model for conflict-sensitive governance.

Narayanpur’s Intify Intelligence Tool demonstrated the role of data integration in strengthening internal security governance. By centralising intelligence inputs into a real-time, geospatial and predictive platform, the system enabled over 100 planned operations, improved inter-agency coordination and enhanced situational awareness in Left Wing Extremism–affected regions.

On the departmental front, the Vidya Samiksha Kendra (VSK) of the Education Department emerged as a cornerstone of data-driven education governance. Monitoring over 56,000 schools, 2.83 lakh teachers and 57.5 lakh students, the AI-enabled platform supports early dropout detection, optimised resource allocation and evidence-based decision-making across the state’s education ecosystem.

The One Click – Single Window System of the Commerce & Industries Department exemplified ease-of-doing-business reform at scale. Integrating 136 services across 16 departments, the platform streamlined approvals, incentives, grievances and inspections into a unified digital experience, significantly reducing delays while improving transparency and investor confidence.

The Commercial Tax (Excise) Department’s Comprehensive Excise e-Governance Reforms demonstrated how deep digital transformation can strengthen revenue mobilisation and compliance. With end-to-end digitisation, track-and-trace systems and real-time dashboards, the department recorded ₹5,425 crore in revenue, setting new standards in transparency, procurement efficiency and regulatory oversight.

Equally impactful was FDS 2.0 – eKuber Digital Payment System of the Forest & Climate Change Department, which replaced manual cheque-based workflows with fully cashless, RBI-integrated payments. Processing over ₹1,776 crore through 18 lakh transactions, the system ensured timely wage payments, livelihood security and transparent fund flow, even in remote and Naxal-affected forest divisions.

The QR Code–Based Information Disclosure under MGNREGA by the Panchayat & Rural Development Department reinforced citizen-centric governance. By enabling villagers to access real-time scheme information through simple QR scans, the initiative empowered communities, reduced dependency on intermediaries and strengthened grassroots transparency across more than 11,000 Gram Panchayats.

Chief Minister Shri Sai reiterated that these awards are not an end but a beginning—an institutional signal that Chhattisgarh’s future lies in scalable, citizen-focused and technology-enabled governance. The awardees will participate in a leadership development programme at a premier management institution, ensuring that today’s innovations become tomorrow’s governance standards.

Chief Minister Vishnu Deo Sai said that innovation in public administration is not merely about adopting new technology, but about delivering timely, transparent and outcome-oriented services to citizens. He stated that governance must continuously evolve to address complex ground-level challenges, and that initiatives recognised under the Chief Minister’s Excellence Awards demonstrate how scalable, data-driven and citizen-centric solutions can strengthen trust in public institutions. The Chief Minister added that these innovations provide replicable models for future-ready governance across the State.

The Chief Minister affirmed that Chhattisgarh will continue to nurture innovation as the core value of public service, transforming governance from within and delivering measurable impact to every citizen.