Aug 20, 2025: Union Minister of State (Independent Charge) for Science and Technology; Earth Sciences and Minister of State for PMO, Department of Atomic Energy, Department of Space, Personnel, Public Grievances, and Pensions, spoke at the 57th Pre-Retirement Counseling Workshop and the 8th “National Anubhav Awards” ceremony held at Vigyan Bhawan. Jitendra Singh underlined the importance of drawing upon the wisdom and experience of retired Government employees, calling them “partners in nation building even beyond superannuation”.

Dr. spoke to the gathering. Jitendra Singh said the Anubhav Awards, launched in 2015, were conceived not only to honour retiring officials but also to build an institutional memory of governance through their recorded experiences. He emphasized the value of retiree candid feedback for enhancing transparency, citizen-centered governance, and human resource management. Additionally, the Minister emphasized efforts to integrate institutional learning with technology. This year’s awards mark a decade of the initiative, with more than 12,500 memoirs published on the Anubhav portal so far. Fifteen awardees from 11 Ministries and departments were felicitated, including for the first time officers from a public sector bank and a central public sector enterprise.

M was the prominent recipient of the "National Anubhav Award." Venkatesan, who retired after 35 distinguished years as a civil servant, documented his services during critical times, such as the Ukraine evacuation in 2022 and the Kashmir floods in 2014; Hukum Singh Meena, who spearheaded the digitization of land records in over 6.4 lakh villages; Shalini Kacker of SBI, who drove Direct Benefit Transfer, pension reforms, and Digital Life Certificate campaigns in banking; and O. Virupakshappa of the Department of Posts, who expanded postal savings and insurance schemes to rural communities; and Saju P.K. of the CRPF, who served in sensitive operational areas ranging from Assam to Pulwama. Jai Prakash Srivastava (BHEL), Vinod P., and Dr. were recipients of the Jury Award. Dr. Sabu Sebastian (DRDO) S., Sunitha Cherodath (Telecom), Jolly Dhar (ISRO), Meenakshi Sundaram and Balam Singh Rawat (CRPF), Velaga Kumari (CWC), Sheela Rani Poddar (CRPF), and Santosh Gawli (ITBP), all of whom represent a diverse range of services. The ceremony was attended by senior officials including V. In addition to Srinivas, Secretary (Pension), Vitul Kumar, Special DG of the CRPF, Roli Singh, Additional Secretary & DG of the CGHS, Raj Kumar Arora, CGDA, and Dhrubajyoti Sengupta, Joint Secretary (Pension), Dr. Jitendra Singh in felicitating the awardees and releasing new initiatives such as the guidelines for the nation-wide Digital Life Certificate Campaign 4.0 and a Coffee Table e-Book of success stories from Special Campaign 2.0.