The Ministry of Panchayati Raj is organizing a two-day National Writeshop on the Panchayat Advancement Index (PAI) Version 2.0 on 26th–27th May 2025 at Dr. Ambedkar International Centre, New Delhi. The Writeshop marks the national roll out of PAI 2.0 for FY 2023–24 and is aimed at building capacities for data-based monitoring and planning at the Gram Panchayat level to support the achievement of holistic, inclusive, and sustainable development in rural areas through Panchayati Raj Institutions.

The inaugural session will be graced by Shri Vivek Bharadwaj, Secretary, Ministry of Panchayati Raj (MoPR); Shri Saurabh Garg, Secretary, Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation (MoSPI); Shri Sushil Kumar Lohani, Additional Secretary, MoPR; and Shri Rajib Kumar Sen, Senior Advisor, NITI Aayog, alongwith other senior officers and experts.

The PAI has been developed as a robust, multidimensional tool to assess and monitor the progress of Gram Panchayats against nine themes aligned with the Localized Sustainable Development Goals (LSDGs). These themes cover areas such as poverty alleviation, health, education, water sufficiency, clean environment, infrastructure, governance, social justice, and women’s empowerment.

While PAI 1.0 (FY 2022–23) served as a baseline assessment tool, PAI 2.0 incorporates major enhancements based on extensive field experience and stakeholder feedback. PAI 2.0 introduces a sharper and more focused framework by rationalizing the number of indicators from 516 to 147, ensuring higher data quality, ease of reporting, and actionable insights. The refined Local Indicator Framework now emphasizes outcome-oriented, measurable indicators across nine LSDG themes, enabling Gram Panchayats to better track progress, prioritize interventions, and enhance transparency in local governance. The key improvements in PAI 2.0 include:

• Reduction in the number of indicators from 516 in PAI 1.0 to 147 in PAI 2.0 to improve usability and reduce reporting burden;
• Rationalized data points and themes, focusing on quality over quantity;
• Auto-integration of data from national portals of Union Ministries and Departments;
• Streamlined and mobile-friendly portal interface with improved dashboards and user accessibility;
• Built-in validation and anomaly detection mechanisms for ensuring accurate data entry and tracking;
• A Decision Support System to help Panchayats identify development gaps and prioritize resource allocation.

The two-day National Writeshop will entail, release of the Local Indicator Framework (LIF) Booklet for FY 2023–24, and the launch of the upgraded PAI 2.0 Portal and SOPs. While technical sessions will focus on the outline of the PAI 1.0 Baseline Report, the framework and methodology of PAI 2.0, and demonstrations of portal functionalities.

Participants will also engage in hands-on group exercises for portal configuration, data entry, validation, and use of PAI outputs in planning. On the second day, State and UT teams will present their experiences, share implementation insights from PAI 1.0, and showcase how they plan to utilize PAI 2.0 for strengthening Gram Panchayat Development Plans (GPDPs). The Writeshop will witness participation from 32 States and Union Territories, including senior officers from the Departments of Panchayati Raj, Health, Education, Rural Development, Public Health Engineering, Women and Child Development, and technical teams from NITI Aayog, MoSPI, National Informatics Centre (NIC), and knowledge partners such as UNICEF, UNFPA, TRI, and Piramal Foundation.

To promote linguistic inclusivity and national outreach, the event will be livestreamed in eleven Indian languages: Assamese, Bengali, English, Gujarati, Kannada, Malayalam, Marathi, Odia, Punjabi, Tamil, and Telugu.

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Aditi Agrawal