State PCS - Maharashtra (MPSC)

• 03 Jan 2026

Maharashtra Field Meet on FRA Digitisation

Why in News?

The Ministry of Tribal Affairs (MoTA) conducted a field engagement meeting in Nashik, Maharashtra to advance the digitisation and effective monitoring of the Forest Rights Act (FRA), 2006.

Key Points

• Objective: To support the design of an AI powered FRA Atlas and WebGIS based Decision Support System (DSS) for integrated monitoring of Individual Forest Rights (IFR), Community Rights (CR), and Community Forest Resource (CFR) rights.
  • Smart India Hackathon Link: The meeting followed the Smart India Hackathon (SIH) 2025 engagement where student teams worked on software solutions for FRA digitisation challenges.
• Smart India Hackathon is a nationwide initiative to provide students with a platform to solve some of the pressing problems we face in our daily lives, and thus inculcate a culture of product innovation and a mindset of problem-solving.
• Demonstration: The Maharashtra FRA Portal was showcased, highlighting its functioning, field use, and successful issuance of FRA titles.
• Strategic Goal: The initiative aligns with the Viksit Bharat vision, leveraging technology for transparent, data-driven governance to "undo historical injustice".