9 August 2025 – The Department of Administrative Reforms and Public Grievances (DARPG) has released the detailed scheme guidelines for the 23rd National Awards for e-Governance (NAeG) 2026. This annual award scheme, which aims to recognise and promote excellence in digital governance, is now open for nominations from central, state and district level government bodies as well as local grassroots bodies.
A total of 16 awards will be given under the NAeG 2026 scheme, including 10 Gold Awards and 6 Silver Awards. These prestigious awards will carry a trophy, certificate and significant cash incentives. Gold award winners will receive an incentive of ₹10 lakh, while Silver award winners will be awarded ₹5 lakh. This prize money will be used by the winning organisation or district to further their projects, implement new programmes or meet resource gaps in public welfare areas.
The awards will be given in seven distinct categories, reflecting the government’s focus on the use of technology to enhance citizen services and administrative efficiency. The categories for NAeG 2026 are as follows –
Government Process Re-engineering by use of technology for Digital Transformation: To recognise projects that have radically redesigned government processes using technology to achieve digital transformation.
Innovation by Use of AI and other new age technologies for providing Citizen-Centric Services: To recognise efforts that have improved public service delivery using cutting-edge technologies such as Artificial Intelligence (AI).
Best e-Gov Practices/Innovation in Cyber Security: To honour initiatives that have demonstrated excellent practices and innovation in ensuring security of e-governance platforms and data.
District Level Initiatives in e-Governance: To recognise outstanding e-governance projects implemented at the district level.
Grassroots Level Initiatives by Gram Panchayats: Special category for initiatives aimed at deepening and expanding service delivery by Gram Panchayats or similar traditional local bodies.
Replication and Scaling of Nationally Awarded and Mission-mode e-Governance Projects: This category will encourage projects that successfully replicate and scale proven e-governance models across states, districts or Union Territories.
Digital transformation by use of data analytics in digital platforms by Central Ministries/States/UTs: To recognize digital transformation and improvement in policy decisions through effective use of data analytics.
DARPG has set clear timelines for the nomination process. The web portal for submission (www.nceg.gov.in) will open on 1 September 2025 and the last date for submission of applications will be 15 October 2025.
Projects submitted for consideration should have been launched between 1 July 2023 and 30 June 2025 and should be fully commissioned and operational by 1 August 2025. This will ensure that awards are given only to initiatives that have had a real impact and are fully functional.
The National e-Governance Awards are given every year to honour and promote excellence in implementation of digital initiatives. These awards are an important part of the Government’s comprehensive Digital India programme, which aims to transform India into a digitally empowered society and knowledge-based economy.
