Gumla: A digital system born in Gumla to track govt-built assets is now set to become a management lesson at India’s premier B-schools.Gram Sampati, a QR-based, geo-tagged digital asset registry with a unified dashboard, will be taught at IIM Ahmedabad (IIMA), XLRI Jamshedpur and other management institutes. The case study examines how digital tools can improve the planning, execution, use and maintenance of civil assets.The system was conceptualised and implemented in 2023 by IAS officer Karn Satyarthi, then Gumla deputy commissioner. It sought to fix a common problem in public works: departments executed hundreds of projects every year, but had no single view of what had been built, its progress or maintenance needs.Information was scattered across portals, registers and informal channels, often leading to duplication, delays and leakages. Gram Sampati brought the data together through field verification and convergence, offering officials a real-time view of assets and project status without major changes to existing workflows.The initiative drew attention when it was replicated in East Singhbhum district. Alok Raj of XLRI and his team documented it as a teaching case, which was later examined, vetted and accepted by the IIM-A Case Centre.The study, titled “Using Digital Implementation to Improve the Planning, Implementation, Use and Maintenance of Civil Assets”, will be used in IIM-A’s MBA (PGP), executive MBA and faculty development programmes, besides XLRI courses and those of other institutes.The XLRI team comprised Raj, Ujjawal Agarwal and Himanshu Arha, along with Satyarthi, who coined the system. IIM-A Case Centre’s Arunya told the authors that the case and teaching note were available on its website.
