Mamata Banerjee’s welfare schemes win UN award

  1. Two schemes of the West Bengal government viz. “Utkarsh Bangla” and “Sabooj Sathi” have won World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS) prizes of the United Nations.
  2. Launched in 2016, the Utkarsh Bangla scheme provides for placement linked short-term skill trainings across the state of West Bengal.
  3. Launched in 2015, Sabuj Sathi is a scheme for distribution of bi-cycles to students of class IX to XII studying in Govt. run and Govt. aided Schools and Madrashas.
  4. WSIS Prizes is an international contest. It seeks to create an effective mechanism to evaluate and recognise individuals, governments and private bodies for outstanding success in implementing development oriented strategies that leverage the power of ICT.
  5. The World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS) was a two-phase United Nations (UN) summit. It was initiated in order to create an evolving multi- stakeholder platform aimed at addressing the issues raised by information and communication technologies (ICTs).