The program launches in collaboration with Palladium, where Palladium provides comprehensive support spanning conceptualization, implementation planning, vendor empanelment, onboarding Bank of Baroda as a transactional partner, and ensuring e-Rupi compliance, resulting in seamless execution and impactful outcomes for the program
Pimpri Chinchwad Municipal Corporation’s (PCMC) in Maharashtra has launched the transformative School Essentials Direct Transfer Program ensuring quality access of the education essentials. Under the program, essential school kits will be given to all the municipal school students, and combines innovative technology with governance to tackle issues of transparency, efficiency, and accountability. This program leverages the e-Rupi platform, a digital payment solution of National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI), to ensure optimum utilization of the funds. Palladium, a consultancy firm supported PCMC in conceptualizing and implementing the initiative.
In previous years, funds for PCMC municipal school essentials were directly transferred into parents’ bank accounts. While this approach simplified the disbursement process, the Education Department realized that around 40% of the funds were only used for the intended purpose, while the remaining fund was utilized by the parents for unknown reasons.
To tackle this challenge and ensure that all students have access to quality school essential kit compromising of school bag, shoes, raincoat, water bottle, and other stationary items, an innovative solution of e-Rupi launched by Hon. Prime Minister, Shri Narendra Modi was explored and implemented as a step toward digital transformation to ensure effective utilization of the funds.
The implementation of this program has been a resounding success. In its first year, more than 51,000 students from municipal schools received their school kits. By switching to e-Rupi, the program eliminated fund misuse and optimized the utilization of INR 19.90 crore.
A key factor in the program’s success was the collaboration between PCMC and Palladium. Palladium provided end-to-end support, including conceptualization and developing the implementation plan and monitoring framework, providing transaction advisory for empaneling vendors, onboarding transactional partner (Bank of Baroda) and ensuring compliance with e-Rupi requirements. Their focus on maintaining high standards in the quality of school supplies further enhanced the impact of this initiative.
Shekhar Singh, Commissioner of PCMC, emphasized the transformative power of the initiative, stating, “This year’s successful DBT implementation has enabled us to provide high-quality school supplies to our students. Through e-RUPI’s digital payment process, we optimized the use of funds, allowing students to benefit directly. We are confident that, moving forward, we will continue refining the process for faster and more efficient implementation, ensuring every student benefits from such initiatives.“
