The Centre’s key data integration project to develop an integrated infrastructure to reduce logistic costs, has gained momentum with as many as 14 social sector ministries, including Health and Panchayati Raj, integrating their data on the PM GatiShakti National Master Plan (NMP) platform.
The NMP platform, launched in 2021, looks to develop not just an integrated infrastructure but also create a technology backed tool for effective infrastructure development in the country.
According to the Ministry of Commerce and Industry, the data related to infrastructure assets of these ministries have been mapped on NMP. This data includes primary and secondary schools, colleges, primary health centres, district hospitals, health sub-centres, public toilets, dump sites, Anganwadi centres, fair price shops, Amrit samovars, and dairy locations.
Under the PM GatiShakti NMP all logistics and connectivity infrastructure projects, involving an investment of over Rs 500 crore, are routed through the Network Planning Group (NPG).
As per Union commerce ministry all the Individual portals of these 14 Ministries/Departments have been developed and integrated at the backend with the NMP. The Union ministry of women and child development has also developed a mobile application – Poshan Tracker for the collection of data regarding Anganwadi Centres (AWC) under the Mission Poshan 2.0. The collected data is geo-tagged and integrated with the NMP platform through API integration.
Earlier on May 3 a meeting was held to review the status of the adoption of NMP for social sector planning and the measures to be taken for data management. The ministry said that each social sector ministry will develop Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) to serve as guidelines for data management, which may be replicated by states.
Sumita Dawra, Special Secretary, Logistics Division, commerce ministry, meanwhile, stressed that for a wider adoption of PM GatiShakti NMP, a comprehensive area approach planning should be focused upon. After the mapping of the existing Anganwadi centres on the NMP platform, new areas were identified in terms of establishing new centres, based on the parameters like local population, habitat clusters, distance between institutions, and using the site suitability tool on the NMP.
