• Prime Minister Narendra Modi chaired the 48th meeting of PRAGATI in New Delhi on June 25.

• During the meeting, PM Modi reviewed certain critical infrastructure projects across mines, railways, and water resources sectors. 

• These projects, pivotal to economic growth and public welfare, were reviewed with a focus on timelines, inter-agency coordination, and issue resolution.

• During a review of Prime Minister-Ayushman Bharat Health Infrastructure Mission (PM-ABHIM), he urged all states to accelerate development of health infrastructure, with a special focus on Aspirational Districts, as well as remote, tribal, and border areas. 

• He emphasized that equitable access to quality healthcare must be ensured for the poor, marginalised, and underserved populations, and called for urgent and sustained efforts to bridge existing gaps in critical health services across these regions.

What is PRAGATI?

• PRAGATI is the acronym for the ICT-based multi-modal platform for Pro-Active Governance and Timely Implementation.

• It is a three-tier system consisting of the PMO, Union government secretaries and chief secretaries of the states.

• The system has been designed by the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) with the help of National Informatics Center (NIC). 

• The platform is aimed at addressing the common man’s grievances, and simultaneously monitoring and reviewing important programmes and projects of the central as well as state governments.

Its objectives are:

i) Grievance redressal

ii) Programme implementation

iii) Project monitoring.

The PRAGATI platform bundles three technologies: 

i) Digital data management

ii) Video-conferencing

iii) Geo-spatial technology. 

• It offers a unique combination in the direction of cooperative federalism since it brings on one stage the secretaries of government of India and the chief secretaries of the states.

• With this, the Prime Minister is able to discuss the issues with the concerned central and state officials with full information and latest visuals of the ground level situation.

• It is a robust system for bringing e-transparency and e-accountability with real-time presence and exchange among the key stakeholders. It is also an innovative project in e-governance and good governance. 

• The first meeting was held on March 25, 2015.

• During PRAGATI meetings, 373 projects having a total cost of around Rs 20.64 lakh crore have been reviewed.

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