Shillong: The move is on to provide a national platform for sharing innovative governance practices, fostering collaboration among States and Union Territories, and promoting the adoption of next-generation administrative reforms. By bringing together policymakers, administrators, and domain experts from across the country, this collaborative effort seeks to build a highly transparent, efficient, and responsive public administration tailored to modern needs.
The Department of Administrative Reforms and Public Grievances, in collaboration with the Government of Meghalaya, is organizing a two-day National Conference on the theme NextGen Administrative and e-Gov Reforms on July 13 and 14, 2026, in Shillong, Meghalaya. Dr. Jitendra Singh, Union Minister of State for Science and Technology, Earth Sciences, and Personnel, Public Grievances and Pensions, alongside Shri Conrad K. Sangma, Chief Minister of Meghalaya, will address the inaugural session of the event. The conference brings together policymakers, administrators, technologists, and governance practitioners from across the country to deliberate on the future of public administration and digital governance.
Smt. Nivedita Shukla Verma, Secretary of DARPG, DoPPW, and MDoNER, and Dr. Shakil P. Ahammed, Chief Secretary of the Government of Meghalaya, will also address the inaugural session. More than 300 delegates, including senior officers from the Central and State Governments, District Collectors, domain experts, and representatives from academic institutions, are expected to participate.
Over the course of two days, the conference will feature presentations on Prime Minister’s Award-winning Initiatives from 2023 and 2024, National Awards for e-Governance-winning projects, Best Practices from the Government of Meghalaya, and DARPG-assisted State Collaborative Initiatives from the North Eastern Region. These presentations will cover diverse themes including the holistic development of districts, digital governance, cyber security, public service delivery, health, education, consumer protection, banking, urban governance, rural development, and technology-enabled governance.
The event will commence with a dedicated session on the Best Practices of the Government of Meghalaya, highlighting the state’s innovative governance initiatives and citizen-centric reforms that have strengthened service delivery and administrative efficiency. This will be followed by a session on Prime Minister’s Award-winning Initiatives from 2023 and 2024, showcasing exemplary district-level innovations and governance models that have demonstrated measurable impact in areas such as Holistic Development, Education, Rural Livelihoods, and the Aspirational District Programme.
The third session, based on the National Awards for e-Governance 2026 winning Projects, will present cutting-edge digital governance initiatives from Ministries, State Governments, Urban Local Bodies, and public institutions. The projects will demonstrate the transformative use of emerging technologies in sectors such as Urban Governance, Healthcare, Digital Banking, Pilgrimage Management, Panchayati Raj, Consumer Protection, and Cyber Security, offering scalable models for replication across the country.
A dedicated session on the Development of the North Eastern Region will focus on transformative initiatives led by the Ministry of Development of North Eastern Region and the North Eastern Council, highlighting innovative interventions in bamboo and agarwood value chains, tourism, regional infrastructure, project monitoring, and inter-state collaboration for sustainable development.
The conference will also feature a special session on DARPG/State Collaborative Initiative-assisted Best Practices from the North Eastern Region, presenting innovative governance projects from Meghalaya, Mizoram, and Nagaland. These initiatives showcase technology-enabled public service delivery, project monitoring systems, digital governance platforms, consumer grievance redressal mechanisms, and public safety solutions developed with DARPG’s support to strengthen governance capacities in the North East.
Ultimately, the conference aims to provide a national platform for sharing innovative governance practices, fostering collaboration among States and Union Territories, and promoting the adoption of next-generation administrative reforms. By encouraging the replication of successful governance models and facilitating knowledge exchange on emerging technologies, the event seeks to accelerate digital transformation, strengthen citizen-centric public service delivery, and build a transparent, efficient, and responsive public administration, establishing a new mantra for NextGen bureaucrats.