Defence Minister unveils several digital initiatives of Defence Accounts Department during its 276th Annual Day celebrations

• ‘SARANSH’, an integrated defence finance dashboard for Ministry of Defence, among the initiatives launched
• India needs stronger Armed Forces with modern equipment to become a developed nation by 2047; Effective utilisation of financial resources is the key: Mr. Rajnath Singh
• Calls upon DAD to collaborate with institutes like IIMs & ICAI to deal with complexities of changing times
• “Realistic assessment of the demand of user agency & understanding the product’s market must for prudent financial advice”
• Suggests setting up a standing committee to research & provide high-quality market intelligence to field officers

New Delhi. Defence Minister Rajnath Singh launched several digital initiatives of Defence Accounts Department (DAD) during its 276^thAnnual Day celebrations at Delhi Cantt. on October 1, 2023. The initiatives include an integrated defence finance dashboard for Ministry of Defence ‘SARANSH’ – Summary of Accounts, Budget and Expenditure for Raksha Mantralaya; BISWAS – Bill Information and Work Analysis System and e-Raksha Awaas.

In his address, Defence Minister described the DAD as the guardian of defence finance and appreciated its efforts towards enhancing the country’s defence capabilities through a transparent &efficient system. Terming accounting as extremely important for an individual, organisation and nation as a whole, he said: “Our wants are unlimited, but the available resources are limited”. He commended the DAD for ensuring judicious use of resources while extracting optimum output.

While Mr. Rajnath Singh lauded the DAD for coming out with numerous digital initiatives, he gave a series of suggestions to further enhance the efficiency and functioning of the department. He exhorted the officials of the DAD to develop their professional capabilities to deal with the complexities arising of the constantly-evolving times. He urged them to collaborate with reputed institutions like the Indian Institutes of Management (IIMs) and the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India (ICAI)to develop and adopt customised training modules, as per requirements.

Defence Minister termed financial advice as one of the most important tasks of the DAD. He urged them to keep in mind two broad aspects while extending financial advice – realistic assessment of the demand of the user agency &understanding of the product’s market. He stressed the need to pay attention to the fact whether there is a need to buy a product or not and whether a similar product of equal or greater effectiveness is available somewhere else in the market at a lower cost. This understanding will further increase the quality of financial advice, he said.

To develop such an understanding, Mr. Rajnath Singh suggested the creation ofan in-house mechanism, a standing committee of experienced people who can research &study market forces and provide high-quality market intelligence to the field officers. “Big banks and financial institutions develop in-house economic intelligence and research teams. On similar lines, the DAD needs to develop an in-house team for market research and intelligence,” he said. Defence Minister also recommended collaboration with industry associations, business schools, etc. for extensive study of the market conditions.

Defence Minister emphasised the need to bolster the internal vigilance mechanism, so that any suspicious activity can be detected and reviewed immediately. This, he said, will not only help in dealing with the problem quickly, but will also increase the trust of the people in the department.

Mr. Rajnath Singh asserted that the Government has set a target to make India a developed nation by 2047 and the DAD will play a crucial role in realising this vision of Prime Minister Narendra Modi. “If we wish to create a developed nation, we will need stronger Armed Forces with modern arms and equipment. Therefore, it is necessary to effectively utilise the financial resources available to us. There should be a fine balance between the demands of services and the allocation of available resources,” he said.

Details of the digital initiatives launched by Defence Minister are given below:

SARANSH

SARANSH (Summary of Accounts, Budget & Expenditure for Raksha Mantralaya) has been conceptualised and developed with the aim to reflect a more accurate and objective view of the defence financial data across India on payment, accounting, budgeting etc. by leveraging data analytics on the different databases of various IT systems running in the Defence Accounts Department.

This analytics tool integrates, compiles, sanitises & standardises financial data from multiple applications/data sources and provides a real-time comprehensive platform with the features of a dashboard: visualize trends, displaying metrics, graphs on key performance indicators, reports etc. ‘SARANSH’ will serve as a complete Dashboard for the higher management with at-a-glance visibility of all the defence expenditure for centralized monitoring and driving towards data-driven decisions for all defence organizations.

BISWAS

BISWAS will serve as a Dashboard to the various PCsDA/CsDA and display different infographics for the purpose of monitoring and analysis of the whole process flow of bill management, including reports on Key Performance Indicators (KPIs). It provides real-time detailed analysis of bill processing, with interactive visualisations of granular data flowing through the various office automation systems for a Controller office.

e-Raksha Awaas

e-Raksha Awaas is a centralised and comprehensive software package developed to streamline and optimize the process of generating timely rent and allied charges for rentable buildings within the Defence Services and facilitating the prompt remission of rent and allied charges to Government Accounts. This package serves as a unified online platform for all stakeholders involved in the generation, recovery and remission of rent and allied charges viz. BSO, AAO (BSO), AO (GE), PAOs, PCsDA/CsDA office etc.

On the occasion, Mr. Rajnath Singh also gave away Defence Minister Awards for Excellence 2023 to five teams for exhibiting exemplary initiatives in implementing key department projects – For adoption of new paradigms of training methodology; implementation of Computer Based Testing (CBT) systems in the conduct of SAS Examinations in Defence Accounts Department; Implementation of SARANSH Raksha Mantralaya Dashboard; Implementation of Dolphin 2.0, a nation-wide system for management of pay and allowances for JCOs/Other Ranks of the Indian Army; and for Development of Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) for field offices of the Department.

Chief of Defence Staff General Anil Chauhan, Chief of Air Staff Air Chief Marshal VR Chaudhari, Chief of Naval Staff Admiral R Hari Kumar, Financial Advisor (Defence Services) Mrs. Rasika Chaube, Controller General of Defence Accounts Mr. SG Dastidar and other senior officials of Ministry of Defence were present during the event.