Sparsh Initiative

In News 

• The Defence Accounts Department signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Bank of Baroda and HDFC Bank, to onboard them as Service Centres under the System for Pension Administration (Raksha) (SPARSH) initiative, across more than 14,000 branches throughout India.

About SPARSH 

• It is a web-based system for processing the pension claims and crediting the pension directly into the bank accounts of defence pensioners without any external intermediary.  
• It has been designed to give Defence Pensioners a transparent view of their pension account, through an online portal which captures and maintains a complete history of events and entitlements of the pensioner – right from the date of commencement of pension to the date of cessation of pension due to the last eligible beneficiary.
• This system is administered by the Defence Accounts Department through the Principal Controller of Defence Accounts (Pensions), Prayagraj and caters to all the three Services and allied organisations.
•  The system on roll-out is initially catering to the new retirees and subsequently is being extended to cover the existing defence pensioners
• Achievements: Providing impetus to Digital India initiative, SPARSH has grown exponentially with more than Rs 11,600 Crores disbursed in the Financial Year 2021-22, from just about Rs 57 crores in FY 2020-21. 
  • The total number of pensioners onboard SPARSH has crossed over one million mark with 11 lakh beneficiaries, which is about 33% of the total defence pensioners in India. 

Source:LM