Odisha Cabinet Approves ₹93.13 Crore for Smartphones Under POSHAN Abhiyaan

Bhubaneswar: In a major step to strengthen digital service delivery at the grassroots level, the Odisha State Cabinet has approved the procurement of 79,033 smartphones under the POSHAN Abhiyaan at a total cost of ₹93.13 crore.

The smartphones, identified as Samsung A06 (Model: SM-A065F/DS), will be procured through the Government e-Marketplace (GeM) portal from NF Infratech Services Pvt. Ltd.. The initiative follows guidelines issued by the Ministry of Women and Child Development, which mandate the provision of smartphones to frontline workers once every four years under Saksham Anganwadi and POSHAN 2.0.

Officials said the devices will be distributed among Anganwadi Workers, Lady Supervisors, and Block Coordinators (Poshan) across the state to enhance real-time monitoring and improve service delivery.

The smartphones are expected to play a crucial role in strengthening field-level implementation by enabling seamless registration of beneficiaries and daily data entry on the Poshan Tracker. They will also support tracking of supplementary nutrition, distribution of Take-Home Ration through Face Recognition System (FRS), growth monitoring of children, and management of pre-school education activities.

In addition, the devices will facilitate better monitoring of Anganwadi Centre infrastructure and overall programme implementation, ensuring improved transparency and efficiency.