Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment to launch PM-AJAY portal and mobile app for the Pradhan Mantri Anusuchit Jaati Abhyuday Yojna scheme

📌 Summary:

• The Ministry of Social Justice & Empowerment will launch the PM-AJAY portal and the AJAY mobile app to fully digitise grassroots workflows for all three components of the Pradhan Mantri Anusuchit Jaati Abhyuday Yojna (PM-AJAY)
• The three PM-AJAY components are: (1) Adarsh Gram, (2) Grant-in-Aid for skilling and employment, (3) Hostels in educational institutions
• The PM-AJAY dashboard records socio-economic progress in over 47,000 SC-majority villages, covering more than 4 million beneficiaries
• The portal enables milestone-linked fund flows; for Adarsh Gram, paper-based planning is replaced by digital Village Development Plans (VDPs) tracked against 50 monitorable socio-economic indicators across 10 developmental domains
• The mobile app supports offline door-to-door surveys, digital beneficiary registration, geo-tagged time-stamped photo uploads for hostel construction, and real-time field monitoring
• Key features: unified login, role-based access control, geo-tagging, mobile inspections and dashboard reporting
• Aim: leverage digital governance for inclusive socio-economic development and citizen-centric service delivery for a Viksit Bharat

🎯 UPSC Relevance: GS2 (Governance & Social Justice) — welfare schemes for Scheduled Castes, digital governance, transparency in fund flow, social justice delivery.

📝 Prelims Facts:

• PM-AJAY = Pradhan Mantri Anusuchit Jaati Abhyuday Yojna; implemented by the Ministry of Social Justice & Empowerment
• Three components: Adarsh Gram, Grant-in-Aid, Hostels
• Covers 47,000+ SC-majority villages and 4 million+ beneficiaries
• Adarsh Gram component monitored on 50 socio-economic indicators across 10 developmental domains

🔑 Key Term: Adarsh Gram — a component under PM-AJAY for the integrated development of SC-majority villages into model villages with adequate infrastructure and access to socio-economic services.