APRIL ISSUE

Point
Out
REDEFINING GOVERNANCE
‘SAMRUDDHI’
FOR ALL
»»
prakash p
A
senior bureaucrat, who has served
in different capacities in Madhya
Pradesh and the Centre, Dr Aruna
Sharma is headingteam effort
through a silent revolution in Madhya
Pradesh, Samruddhi. A financial inclusion
project of MP government she has
been the key persons who drafted it and
is now supervising its implementation in
the state as Additional Chief Secretary,
Panchayat and Rural Development.
Not someone who likes status quo,
Aruna Sharma is one who likes to
take challenges and innovate. It is this
trait that has helped her to work out
Samruddhi, a project that aims to better
lives of rural poor, who had little or
The system if puts beneficiary at
center stage and not convenience of
policy makers then it is important to
have a system that enables transfer
to non-core banking and also to all
the beneficiary who have account in
the financial institution. The Madhya
Pradesh model enabled the same with
support of banks, IT systems, post
office and initiative to shift cooperative
banks to core banking platform.
no access to banking and were always
exploited. After a successful trial of the
project in about 15 districts of the state, it
has been extended to all the 51 districts
in the state and that has witnessed a
tumultuous response from the people
and banks, Aruna Sharma is overseeing
its implementation across the state.
An IAS officer of 1982 batch, she
studied the large scale irregularities
in extending government facilities
and subsidies to the poor, especially
in remote areas and after discussing
with collegues jointly evolved a
system whereby the government money
is directly transferred to the beneficiaries
account from the state treasury/
bank without involvement of any third
party. It was easier said than done,
10
april 2014