Punjab Planning Department with support of UNDPs Sustainable Development Goals Coordination Centre (SDGCC) announced the SDG (Sustainable Development Goals) Action Awards winners, here last evening. The event was attended by Ms. Nadia Rasheed, Deputy Resident Representative, UNDP-India, Ms. Sanyukta Samaddar, Advisor NITI Aayog, Shri. Raj Kamal Chaudhuri, Principal Secretary planning and more than 200 participants.The SDG Action Awards were given to 5 categories i.e. Government Departments, NGOs, Academia, Private Sector and Media who have carried out innovations to address the development issues of the state. The winners through their unique ideas have contributed to the efforts towards sustainable development in the state with exemplary innovations for social and economic upliftment, environment sustainability, integration and approach of leaving no one behind. The entries were assessed by the jury based on the criteria of relevance to SDGs, impact of the initiative, effectiveness of the work done and the sustainability and scalability capacity of the innovation; to identify the winners.The jury panel led by Justice (Retd.) K S Garewal selected 10 winners i.e. first and Second prize winners from each of the 5 categories.
1. Award Category – Government
FIRST PRIZE: Punjab Agri Export Corporation Limited (PAGREXCO) for Sustainable Organic Production and Innovative Marketing System
SECOND PRIZE: Punjab Municipal Infrastructure Development Company (PMIDC), Deptt. of Local Government for BASERA Project
2. Award Category – Private Sector
FIRST PRIZE: Aashna Singh for MoooFarm Farmer Mobile Application
SECOND PRIZE: Taranjeet Singh Bhamra for AgNext Technologies
3. Award category – Academia
FIRST PRIZE: Dr. B S Sooch and Manpreet K Mann, Department of Biotechnology, Punjabi University, Patiala for Development of biodegradable antimicrobial active food package
SECOND PRIZE: Dr. Meenakshi Dhiman & Team for Magnetically Separable Nano Materials and Rice Husk Based Water Purification Unit
4. Award category – Civil Society
FIRST PRIZE: Chhoti Si Asha for Disha Project
SECOND PRIZE: Kheti Virasat Mission for Organic Kitchen Gardening Project to empower women
5. Award category – Media
FIRST PRIZE: Shaili Chopra for Gender Fact by She The People
SECOND PRIZE: Team Radio Chitkara
Speaking at the occasion, Principal Secretary – Department of Planning, Shri. Raj Kamal Chaudhuri said, “SDG Action Awards have been envisaged as a motivational tool to all those contributing to SDGs.” He added that the awards are being given in 5 categories which will evolve in the coming years. Government of Punjab has mainstreamed and adopted Sustainable Development Goals in its planning processes and these SDG Awards 2021 will propagate the message further. Mr. Vikas Verma, Regional Head – North Region, UNDP welcomed the guests, saying that “SDG framework presents a perfect flight map for us to make a better world. It focuses our attention on smaller milestones in forms of targets and indicators.”
Sanyukta Samaddar, Advisor NITI Aayog congratulated the Government of Punjab and UNDP for state’s performance in the SDG Index 2021. She further added, “State of Punjab is a pioneer in instituting these innovative SDG awards. By design, SDGs requires commitment from all stakeholders – a whole of government and whole of society approach and these awards are a prime example of the same.” Ms. Nadia Rasheed, Deputy Resident Representative, UNDP-India talked about UNDP’s mandate to support governments, civil society entities, academia and citizens to ensure that the SDG agenda is localized, monitored and achieved well in time. She suggested that the work done by SDG champions is meaningful beyond Punjab. She congratulated the Government of Punjab for leading and showing the way to others.The event was streamed live on Facebook and YouTube handles of SDGCC Punjab and attended by more than 200 participants.