• Google.org Home


• Gram Panchayat Puruskar
  • Contest home
  • FAQ
  • Rules

Google.org Gram Panchayat Puraskar - Frequently Asked Questions

In 2004, when Google founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin wrote to prospective shareholders about their vision for the company, they outlined a commitment to contribute significant resources, including approximately 1% of Google's equity and profits in some form, as well as employee time, to address some of the world's most urgent problems. That commitment became Google.org. We aim to use the power of information and technology to address some of the world's most challenging problems: climate change, poverty, disasters and disease.

Inform & Empower is one of Google.org's major initiatives. We believe quality public services - clean water, health, and education - are vital for human welfare and a strong economy. Providing meaningful, easily accessible information to citizens and communities, service providers, and policymakers is a key part of creating home-grown solutions to improve the quality of public services. Better information can help governments and other providers spend scarce resources wisely. And, empowered by information, citizens and communities can demand better services from providers or develop new solutions to meet their own needs.

For those not familiar with India, a gram panchayat is the village level of local government, and puraskar is a Hindi word for award.

The “Google.org Gram Panchayat Puraskar” (GGPP) is part of Google.org's Inform and Empower initiative. We’re seeking to recognize and highlight innovations that are happening at the Panchayat level. We invite gram panchayats to showcase their work and emerge as star innovators of their state in working to inform and empower citizens and communities, service providers, and policymakers to improve the quality of public services.

The Google Gram Panchayat Puraskar recognizes that innovations in governance are happening every day in villages across India. We want to publicly recognize good ideas and create incentives for further innovation in local governance throughout the country. And we hope that this contest is the beginning of a platform for sharing best practices across all gram panchayats in India.

We are launching this Contest in two states in India: Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh, encompassing 27,492 villages in 49 districts.

To be eligible to enter the Contest, you must be a legally recognized gram panchayat in the states of Karnataka or Andhra Pradesh, India.

Innovation will be defined as a gram panchayat going above and beyond the call of duty in the programs mentioned above. The gram panchayat will have to demonstrate the following:

• Participation/inclusion of all social and income groups in village decision-making or planning. This should include vulnerable groups like Scheduled Caste/Scheduled Tribe /Other Backward Castes, women, youth, etc.
• Transparency to villagers. This could include proactively sharing information with villagers on:
  • Eligibility, entitlements and progress of the programs
  • Gram sabha dates, proceedings and action items
  • Record maintenance
  • Gram panchayat plan
• Community tracking and monitoring of the budgets and quality of the programs
• Convergence with other programs to reach public service delivery objectives

To participate, the gram panchayat/village will have to submit an application which showcases an innovation that has had some impact on the provision of public services. This innovation has to be in the context of the following six areas:

• Education
• Health and nutrition
• Water supply
• Rural infrastructure
• Rural electrification
• Resource mobilization

To enter the contest, visit the contest website located at www.google.org/ggpp.html or pick-up an application at your district or block panchayat office in Karnataka or Andhra Pradesh during the Contest Period and follow the instructions for submitting an entry.

The contest will be open for entries from December 12, 2008 through February 15, 2009. All entries must be post marked by February 15, 2009. Please mail all applications to:
Google.org Gram Panchayat Puraskar c/o Rishi Jaitly
8th Floor
Tower C Building No.8
DLF Cyber City
Gurgaon, India
122002

No. There is a Contest limit of one entry per gram panchayat.

We will accept written entries in Telugu, Kannada, Hindi or English.

Each entry will be judged by an independent panel of public sector experts in India in order to select a total of 20 finalists in each State. A separate independent panel of judges from a broader sector of society will select the 5 winners in each State. We are in the process of selecting judges and will share this information as soon as it is available. The judging panels will not include any Google staff members.

Beginning in February, 2009 each Entry will be evaluated by the Judges based on the following criteria:

• Empowerment:
  • Scope of participation/inclusion
  • Proactive sharing of information
• Innovation:
  • Originality
  • Knowledge creation
• Scale:
  • Potential impact
  • Sustainability/self sufficiency

• If you've been selected as a Finalist, you will be notified by telephone and your name will be posted on the Contest Site on or about March 2009.
• If you've been selected as a Winner, you will notified by telephone and your name will be posted on the Contest Site on or about April 2009.

There will be a total of 10 prizes, 5 for each State. Each prize will be INR 500,000.

The Prize Committee will visit winning Panchayats to award the prizes.

Google.org will be ensuring that the prizes are used for constructive work by the Panchayats that would result in the overall betterment of the entire village. The prize may not be used for the following activities:

• Any religious activities or purpose;
• Salaries or any other compensation to individuals or government officials;
• Any activities that only benefit individuals; and
• Any activities in breach of applicable law.

Due to volume of submissions, we are unfortunately unable to respond to individual questions from applicants.

Please visit the Official Contest Rules.

©2009 Google - Google.org Home - Contact Us