A two-day workshop on Smart Performance Appraisal Report Recording Online Window (SPARROW) was held for the IAS officers of Himachal Pradesh at Shimla on 29th and 30th of April 2014. The workshop was organised by the Department of Personnel, Government of Himachal Pradesh. The eOffice Division NIC New Delhi provided the faculty for the workshop.

Sh. SKBS Negi IAS, Principal Secretary (Personnel) welcomed the participants and informed that from the current assessment year of 2013-14, it is mandatory for all IAS officers of the State that only electronic PAR is filled in as per procedure given in the SPARROW software. He thanked the NIC SPARROW team, especially Mrs. Suchitra Pyarelal, Senior Technical Director for the continued support and guidance in successful implementation of the Project. About 50 IAS officers of the State participated in the workshop.

Sh. Nirvesh Kumar, from SPARROW Team, NIC New Delhi gave a presentation along with actual demonstration of the SPARROW software. He created a dummy work-flow and explained the complete procedure of online Electronic Performance Appraisal Report (ePAR) generation, creation of work-flow, forwarding of PAR, enrolment of Digital Signature Certificates, signing-sending of ePAR digitally, writing and printing of ePAR etc. He also answered the queries related to manual writing of ePAR by Chief Minister/ Minister,

Sh. Ajay Singh Chahal, SIO NIC Himachal Pradesh informed the current status of ePAR generation and enrolment of DSCs in the SPARROW application which is very good. He informed that the NIC officers at State Centre and Districts have done excellent work in providing technical assistance in enrolment of DSCs and training on SPARROW software. He thanked the Department of Personnel, IAS Officers of the State, Sh. Nirvesh Kumar, Sh. Sanjay Sharma, Sh. Shailender Kaushal and the NIC team for making the workshop a success.

Sh. Sanjay Sharma, NIC State Nodal Officer explained the technical procedure followed in Himachal Pradesh for creation of Emails, Master Data, DSC issuance, its registration in the Software, work-flow definition and ePAR generation so far. He also gave information about the technical support team in Himachal Pradesh for trouble-shooting and technical assistance.

Due to forthcoming Lok Sabha Elections in the State on 7th May, the Deputy Commissioners and IAS officers posted in Districts attended the event through NIC Video Conferencing.