User help book

1. Getting started

1. Open https://ektamall.npcindia.info and press Sign in. Your login name and a one-time password are sent to you by the DPIIT administrator.
2. At the first sign-in, set your own password (at least 10 characters). The portal asks for it before anything else.
3. After five wrong passwords the login is locked for 15 minutes; the administrator can unlock it at once. The portal signs you out after 60 minutes without activity.
4. Your first screen is the Dashboard. If anything is waiting for you, it appears under Your tasks at the top.

Each user sees only the malls of their role: a State officer sees the State's own mall; a Monitoring Officer sees the malls assigned to him or her; an organisation coordinator sees the malls of that organisation; DPIIT sees all.

2. Using a mobile phone

• Android: open the portal in Chrome, then menu (⋮) → Add to Home screen or Install app.
• iPhone: open it in Safari, then Share → Add to Home Screen.
• The portal then opens like an app. Nothing is downloaded from an app store.
• A mobile signal is needed to save. Save the draft often; work saved on the server is never lost.
• Allow Location and Camera for the portal when the phone asks. Without them photographs cannot be geo-tagged.

3. State officers: the return

The return is filled once in each reporting round. The project engineer prepares it; the nodal officer certifies and submits it. Open it from Your tasks or from the mall's page (Fill this round's return).

1. Part 1 · Progress and funds: physical progress, planned progress as per the approved schedule, funds used, utilisation certificates, 2nd instalment, interest, likely completion, workers on site.
2. Part 2 · Category questions: questions for the mall's category (A to E). Most are numbers, dates, Yes/No or a choice from a list. Facts entered once (contractor, contract value, work order date) carry forward to the next round.
3. Part 3 · Stage table: for each stage give the status and the planned date; give the actual date when a stage is completed, and a tentative completion date when it is not. Rows marked compulsory must be filled; open Other stages to update the rest when they change.
4. Part 4 · Issues: record each hold-up separately with who must act and a target date. Open issues carry forward until resolved.
5. Part 5 · Photographs: one photograph for each fixed photo point, taken at the site (see section 4).

Press Save draft at any time. The list Still to fill before submitting shows what is missing. The nodal officer presses Certify and submit. After submission the return cannot be changed unless the Monitoring Officer sends it back with remarks; then correct it and submit again.

4. Taking photographs

1. Stand at the same spot as in the previous round for each fixed photo point (for example, "front view from the gate").
2. Press Take photograph, wait until the location shows (green), then Open camera, take the picture and press Save photograph.
3. The portal prints the mall's name, the view, the date and time, the location and your name on the photograph.
4. A photo alert is shown if the photograph has no location, poor accuracy, is far from the site, is sent long after it was taken, or looks older (possibly from the gallery). Alerts do not stop the return; the Monitoring Officer takes them into account.

5. Monitoring Officers: verification

1. When a State submits, the return appears under Your tasks. Open it.
2. Choose Accept on desk check (from the documents and photographs) or Validate on a field visit. A return accepted on the desk can still be verified at site later.
3. At the first visit, standing at the main gate, press Set site point here. Later photographs are checked for distance from this point.
4. For each of the five parts mark Agreed, Partly agreed or Not agreed, with a remark where not fully agreed.
5. On a field visit record the progress verified at site, the persons met, and at least four photographs from the same fixed points.
6. Give the overall rating, observations and recommended action, and record any new issue.
7. Press Finalise. The dashboard updates at once. If the return is wrong, use Send back with remarks instead.

6. DPIIT and coordinators

• Rounds: open a reporting round with its "as on" date and due date; close it when done.
• Logins: create a login for each person with the right role. For a State engineer who only prepares, untick "May certify and submit". Passwords are shown once and must be changed at first sign-in.
• Category and people (on each mall's page): confirm the category proposed by the portal and assign Monitoring Officers and State officers.
• Trail: every action, by whom, when and from where. Coordinators see the trail of their own organisation's malls.
• Download Excel on the dashboard gives the current position of all malls for notes and reviews.

7. Reading the dashboard

How to read the dashboard and each mall's page is explained here after signing in.

8. Common questions

The location does not appear on the camera screen.

Switch on Location in the phone settings, allow it for the portal, and go to open sky for a minute.

I am at a site with no signal.

Take the photographs from the portal when the signal returns at the site, or save the draft and complete it later the same day. Photographs taken long before upload carry an alert.

I entered a wrong figure after submitting.

Ask the Monitoring Officer to send the return back; then correct and submit again. Every version is kept in the trail.

The category of our mall is not right.

Tell the DPIIT administrator, who can change it. The new category applies from the next return.

Who sees our photographs and figures?

The State's own officers, the assigned Monitoring Officer, the coordinator of the monitoring organisation and DPIIT. The public pages show no data of any mall.

Whom do I contact for help?

The DPIIT administrator (ODOP Section) for logins and rounds; the Monitoring Officer for questions on a return.

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