The sixth edition of the Digital India Awards 2020 ceremony was held today (30th December 2020) at Vigyan Bhavan, New Delhi. To promote more innovative Digital Governance initiatives, Digital India Awards have been instituted under the ambit of the National Portal of India. The awards are biennial and the previous editions have been held in 2010, 2012, 2014, 2016, and 2018. The awards acknowledge exemplary initiatives/practices of various government entities in the realm of Digital Governance.

The Chief Guest of the event, Hon’ble President of India, Shri Ram Nath Kovind graced the occasion from the President’s Secretariat through video conferencing and conferred the awards virtually. The Guests of Honor were Shri Ravi Shankar Prasad, Hon’ble Union Minister of Law & Justice, Communications, and Electronics & Information Technology, and Shri Ajay Sawhney, Secretary, Ministry of Electronics & Information Technology.

Digital India Awards 2020 bestowed 24 awards across 7 categories including Jury’s Choice of Awards. The Awards categories were Innovation in Pandemic, Excellence in digital Governance- Ministry/ Department, Excellence in Digital Governance - State /UT, Excellence in Digital Governance - District, Open Data Champion, Exemplary Product, and the Jury Choice.

In his address, the Hon’ble President of India congratulated the winners for their extraordinary service during the pandemic. He said such awards are the testimony of how Digital India bridged the digital divide and brought in digital inclusion during the challenging times. He compliments NIC and MeitY for organizing Digital India Awards to recognize the noteworthy and sustainable digital-governance initiatives by government entities.

Shri Ravi Shankar Prasad, in his speech, mentioned that it is a mark of great accomplishment that the Digital India Awards are being conferred “digitally". He appreciated that the IT Sector significantly rose to the pandemic. He said that the Digital India ecosystem delivers very effectively and substantially. Today’s Digital India Awards gives us the encouragement and dedication to work with getting the conviction.

Shri Ajay Sawhney congratulates all the winners of Digital India Awards 2020 for their commendable work and all participants for their overwhelming response during this pandemic year. He compliments NIC for playing a key role in the Digital India Awards 2020 ceremony and NIC officers who have worked as digital warriors with other on-ground stakeholders, during this pandemic year.

In the welcome speech, Dr. Neeta Verma, Director General, National Informatics Centre said that we gathered to celebrate exemplary achievements in Digital governance. She welcomed the Hon’ble President of India to confer the Digital India Awards. She also welcomed Shri Ravi Shankar Prasad, Hon’ble Union Minister of Law & Justice, Communications, and Electronics & Information Technology.

While many of the recipients of the awards have attended the ceremony from Vigyan Bhavan, New Delhi, others received awards virtually from offices of their respective states.

This year, for the first time, the entire process for selection of Digital India Awards, right from submitting nominations to the screening of the entries to the final conferring of the awards was done entirely online.