SPARSH : System for Pension Administration (Raksha)
Source : PIB
Governance
What is discussed under SPARSH : System for Pension Administration (Raksha) ?
- About SPARSH
- About the Agreement to this effect was signed
- Need for the SPARSH
- The major benefits upon implementation of SPARSH
Why in News ?
Ministry of Defence implements web-based integrated system for sanction & disbursement of defence pension SPARSH (System for Pension Administration (Raksha))
Key Facts
- SPARSH is an integrated system for automation of sanction and disbursement of defence pension.
Image by Daniel Hadman from Pixabay - This web-based system processes pension claims and credits pension directly into the bank accounts of defence pensioners without relying on any external intermediary.
- A Pensioner Portal is available for pensioners to view their pension related information, access services and register complaints for redressal of grievances, if any, relating to their pension matters.
- It is a Comprehensive Pension Package (CPP), an end to end Online System facilitating and easing every aspect of Defence Pensions from Initiation to Disbursement
- An establishment of Service Centres aims at providing last mile connectivity to pensioners who may not be able to directly access the SPARSH portal for any reason.
- In addition to several offices of the Defence Accounts Department which are already functioning as Service Centres for pensioners the two largest banks dealing with defence pensioners have been co-opted as Service Centres.
- State Bank of India (SBI)
- Punjab National Bank (PNB)
- Agreement to this effect was signed
- Under the agreement, the pensioners can approach various branches of these two banks for obtaining any service relating to their pension issues.
- Need for the SPARSH
- Current challenges in the pension sanctioning and disbursement process such as Decentralized solution existing in silos, Manual intervention in processing, Lack of Centralized information for addressing pensioner queries etc.
- The major benefits upon implementation of SPARSH are :
- Timely and correct payment to the pensioners.
- Accurate and real time status of pension budget.
- Multiple channels for pensioners to avail different departmental services.
- Portal
- Mobile App
- Service Centres
- Call Centre availiability.
- Structured and SLA based grievance redressal mechanism.
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