The participation was impressive in spite of the bad weather that led to cancellation of several flights and delayed train-schedules that did not allow several participants to arrive on time for the event. The participation also reflected the demand for the initiative as the service providing agencies actually paid for the participation. More than 230 participants, representing over 100 organisations, attended the event. In addition, over 40 officials representing 23 States/UT-specific PRDs participated in the event and held discussions with the potential service providing agencies.

The main objective of the event was to bring the Service Seekers and the Service Providers together with the objective to explore possibilities of future cooperation in delivering PRI-related CB&T programmes in a systematic and time bound manner under the broader conception of Public-Private Partnership (PPP) model for strengthening Panchayati Raj in the country. The event successfully facilitated one to one dialogue between the States/UTs PRD officials and the potential service providing agencies that could be potentially considered for engagement in the delivery of CB&T related programmes under appropriate terms and conditions.

As a follow up action, some States/UTs-specific PRDs have taken the initiative of organising the next round of meetings in their respective capitals with the potential service providers to continue with the process of identifying and short-listing suitable partners to consider for future engagement in their States/UTs. The States/UTs-specific PRDs would directly get in touch with the Service Providers who are found suitable to discuss the bidding process and other modalities for their future engagement.

Please watch this web-space for any further developments on this initiative.

All the documents concerning the PRI CB&T Business Meet are being made available for public viewing and reference on this website.