As part of austerity measures in view of the falling economy due to the Covid-19 pandemic, the Centre has prohibited the printing of calendars, diaries, schedulers, coffee table books and other printed materials by all its ministries and departments and directed them to publish them in digital format. The Government has also stopped hospitality reimbursement until further orders.
Issuing the directives, the Finance Ministry cited global best practices and the adoption of digital technologies to increase productivity to back the move.
“Given the prevailing circumstances in which the world is increasingly moving towards adopting digital force-multipliers for productivity, the Government of India has decided to follow this best practice,” it said in a statement.
It also said all public sector units and state-run banks also have been directed to go digital in terms of these regularly printed materials.
“There is to be no activity towards printing wall calendars, desktop calendars, diaries and other such material for use in the coming year by any Ministries/Departments/PSUs/PSBs and all other organs of the government,” added the ministry statement.
It noted that there is to be a concerted effort towards incorporating innovative methods in such matters. Using technological innovations for planning, scheduling and forecasting is well known to be economical, efficient and effective, added the statement.
“Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his Governance model have always seen technology as an enabler. Integrating technology into our work is in line with his vision,” it said.
Further, post the directive, coffee table books too won’t be published by the ministries and government departments and enterprises.
The ministry directed that innovative digital and online solutions, which will achieve the “same result” as physical calendars or diaries, are to be prioritised and to be put into practice.