Meri Panchayat App Wins WSIS 2025 Champion Award for Cultural Diversity

The ‘Meri Panchayat App’ of the Union Ministry of Panchayati Raj has won an award at the United Nations World Summit of Information (WSIS) 2025. The award was announced at the WSIS+20 Forum High-Level Event 2025, which was held in Geneva, Switzerland, from 7 to 11 July 2025.

Champion Award for Meri Panchayat App 

The Meri Panchayat App won the Champion award under the Action Line Category: Cultural Diversity and Identity, Linguistic Diversity and Local Content.

The Award was formally presented to the Union Minister of Panchayati Raj, Rajiv Ranjan Singh alias Lalan Singh, at a ceremonial event held in New Delhi on 21 July 2025.

About the Meri Panchayat App and its features 

The “Meri Panchayat” app is a flagship m-Governance platform developed by the Union Ministry of Panchayati Raj in collaboration with the National Informatics Centre under the Union Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology.

The app promotes citizen-centric governance through digital means by linking 2.65 Gram Panchayats that empower over 25 lakh elected representatives and approximately 950 million rural residents. 

The Meri Panchayat app empowers rural communities by providing real-time information on governance and development on their mobile phone.

Features 

The features of the Meri Panchayat App are as follows:

Financial - It provides real-time Panchayat budgets, receipts, payments and development plans 

Governance - It provides details of elected representatives and functionaries of the panchayats.

Geo-Tagged Infrastructure: The app includes geo-tagged details of public infrastructure and civic amenities within the panchayat, enabling users to track the location of community projects.

Development Plans- The Gram Panchayat Development Plans (GPDPs) will be accessible through the app, and the citizens can track project proposals.

Weather - It will provide weather forecasting at the Gram Panchayat level, benefiting farmers. 

Grievance Redressal and Social Audit:  The app includes a grievance redressal system and integrated social audit tools that will enable citizens to report and monitor fund utilisation.

Geo-Fencing for Project Monitoring: The app has geo-fencing capabilities that allow real-time monitoring of project implementation to ensure accuracy and accountability.

Multilingual Interface: The app supports more than 12 Indian languages to ensure inclusiveness.

About the WSIS+20 Forum High-Level Event

The World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS) +20 Forum High-Level Event has been held annually since 2004 in Geneva, Switzerland.

The WSIS+20 Forum High-Level Event reviews the progress made in the implementation of goals set by the Geneva 2003 action plan of the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS).

The Geneva Action Plan 2003 of the WSIS set the framework for global digital cooperation with a vision of building inclusive, development-oriented information and knowledge societies. 

Organiser of the Event 

The WSIS+20  Forum High-Level Event is organised by the International Telecommunication Union (ITU), the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation ( UNESCO), the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development ( UNCTAD) and the United Nations Development Programme( UNDP).

About the  World Summit on Information Society (WSIS)

The International Telecommunication Union (ITU) first proposed the World Summit on Information Society in 1998 to discuss issues related to the digital divide worldwide. 

There was concern worldwide, especially among developing countries, that due to the undue dominance of American companies over the internet and digital tools, they would not be able to reap the full benefits of information and communication technologies.

Later, the agenda was expanded to include internet-related public policy issues.

The United Nations accepted the proposal in 2001, and the first World Summit on Information Society was held in Geneva, Switzerland, in 2003.